Five Star Seal: Breaking the Chain That Is Love
by seedofsorrows
Summary: Ino lost her lover, going into depression and alcoholism, Naruto lost control of the Kyuubi, and lost some of his sanity to 5 seals that are connected to emotions, love, the last one is impossible to break, or is it? NaruIno
1. Chapter 1

Five Star Seals: Breaking the Chain That Is Love

Summary

Ino lost her teammate and lover, and slipped into depression and alcoholism, Naruto lost control of the Kyuubi, and lost his fiancé and sanity to five seals connected to his emotions, with four broken he hits a bump, the last one is love, and without Hinata, that's impossible, or is it? A dark Naruto fic, NaruIno, lemons is a maybe.

_O.K, I didn't expect this to be out so early. I was hoping for November, but that's not going to be enough time to finish Metal Isn't Always Cold, so I thought I would try to write a couple (2) chapters on this beforehand, I'm barely finding the time to brainstorm for chapter 3, so expect updates about once a month on average, I'm trying to make the chapters longer and I have a shitty computer, but beggars can't be choosers, so I deal with it, read and review peeps._

I don't own anything affiliated with Naruto

It happened again, the pink-haired medic had seen her lying in an alleyway beside that old, run-down bar, she sighed, she was tired of finding her friend beside this bar, but at least it was only one day of the year. And usually she'd find her at the bar reserved for Shinobi, in one of the cots they kept in the back room for the ninja who pass out at the bar, typical Ino. The pinkette grabbed her and started the long walk back to her house.

When she arrived, she was greeted by a usual emotionless Shino, who opted to smile before he seen the drunk blonde draped over her shoulder, and then helped drag Ino up the stairs before depositing her on their bed, he turned to Sakura and gave her a kiss before saying.

"So, you found her by the old Akimichi bar again, am I right?"

"Yeah" Sakura sighed, "But it's only one day of the year, and for that I'm glad."

"The 8th of November" Shino said, "The day he died." He said, and after several minutes of thinking, he turned to Sakura, "We've got to do something about her."

"But..." Sakura said, before Shino cut her off.

"Sakura, she's had four years to get back on her feet" Shino said, emotionless as ever "Shikimaru can't help her forever and Temari's getting pissed, she doesn't like her living with them, and Shikamaru's getting tired of it too, she hardly shows up to work and when she does she's drunk off her ass, we can't leave her alone, she'd drink herself to death."

"Well… couldn't we take her in?" Sakura asked

"No" Shino said "Not with you having one on the way, the house is already packed as it is."

"Let's talk about this in the morning," Sakura said, turning around and walking down the stairs, she turned and said "just leave her here, you and I can share the couch, then I'll make some tea in the morning, for now, let's let her rest up here."

Shino sighed and switched off the light, he walked out of the room, closing the door as he left, leaving the blonde alone with her fitful dreams.

* * *

She was remembering again, that day, remembering in her dream, a dream that would become a nightmare.

She had been on a mission, her team and Hinata's, they were carrying plans and charts from Konoha to Sand, a quick mission, yet important enough that two jounin teams were needed. Hinata had the scrolls in her pack, gaurded on all sides. Ino checked her teammates, Shikamaru was staring up at the clouds as he jumped from tree to tree, all good there, she turned to Choji, who was munching on a bag of chips, a hundred percent there too. She looked back at Hinata, who was doing the same to her teammates, and out of the corner of her eye, Ino saw a blur, and stopped, noticing Hinata had seen and stopped as well. Ino quickly made a couple signals to the group, ordering them to circle Hinata and switch into defensive stances, Akimaru sniffed the air and yipped at Kiba.

"What is it boy?" Kiba asked, getting another bark from the dog, he sniffed the air, and immediately his eyes snapped open, a look of fear on his face, he turned to Ino and Hinata and mouthed one word, "Sasuke".

The team immediately tightened the circle, waiting for an attack. Ino was carefully searching the trees with all her skill, till she heard a high pitched laugh come from the trees to her left, she jerked her head to the sound, to lock eyes with Sasuke, not ten yards from their position.

"You Leaf ninja are pathetic" he said with a smirk, "I've been following you for about a hundred killometers and you just now catch me, hmph and at one time I seen all of you as my comrades, you're all pitiful", he laughed again, before turning to Hinata, "Now, hand me those plans, they concern my master, and the information they contain can make him...unpleasant for quite a while".

"You'll have to take them" Kiba growled.

"We cannot let you have them" Shino said, releasing his bugs.

Sasuke laughed again "And here I thought I was going to get robbed of my fun, oh well, mercy has never been my strong suit"

"Fun?" Shikimaru said lazily, "Ugh, this is such a drag" he said as he stretched his shadow around. Only Choji, Hinata, and Ino kept quiet.

"Ahhh" Sasuke sighed, "I get to spill blood," he had a huge grin on his face, "How could I get this lucky, not only do I get to fight, I get to KILL!" he screamed as he launched himself at the group, his Sharingan activated.

Shikimaru shot his shadow at Sasuke, who dodged quickly to the right, throwing several shuriken, and Shikimaru, who didn't have time to react, felt them pierce his arms, embedding deep into them, cutting several tendons and making them completely useless. Kiba growled and tackled Sasuke, to find himself holding a log, he stood there for a few seconds, dumbfounded, until a kick sent him into a tree. Shino quickly sent his bugs to form a cocoon around Hinata, effectively making her untouchable, he turned and met Sasuke's fist, facefirst, and was sent careening to the ground below. Sasuke smiled, until he was kicked in the head by an angry Kiba, who again stared dumbfounded as Sasuke went up in smoke, he turned around and blocked Sasuke's kick with a smile, till another one kicked him in the stomach, sending him into Akimaru, who had rushed to help his master, both fell to the forest floor, unconscious.

Ino had waited for the right moment, and that moment had come, she quickly did the handsigns for her family's jutsu, and shot her mind at Sasuke. She seen it hit him, she watched as he shrugged it off, she watched as he threw several kunai at her body as her mind rushed back, she was there, she closed her eyes, waiting to feel the knives peirce her skin, she heard the knives pierce flesh, she heard a grunt, and opened her eyes to see Choji's back, he turned to her, tears in his eyes

"Heh" he chuckled " Guess it's a little late to mention our engagement" he said with a forced smile, yet his eyes held sadness, "I don't think I'll get you in front of that altar babe". Choji collapsed, and tried to get up again, but couldn't, one of the kunai had peirced both his heart and lung, he fell and lain there gurgling, until no sound could be heard from him. Ino woke up screaming, in a strange bed, in a strange room, all she knew, is that it was morning.

* * *

Ino quickly grasped the fact that she had been dreaming again, she also realized someone had dragged her here last night, a picture of a genin team on the nightstand made her realize she was in Sakura's house, as it was a picture of team 7. She quietly got out of bed and snuck downstairs, hearing Shino in the kitchen yell_"Sakura, this is important!",_ she decided she could let herself out the backdoor.

* * *

Earlier That Morning

Shino was fidgeting, he was frustrated about something, but he waited patiently till Sakura had the tea ready, she poured them both a cup and sat down, biting her lip. She knew what was coming, and she didn't want to hear it.

"Sakura, we need to do something about her, I know I said it earlier, but I meant it, she needs to get a grip on herself" Shino said.

"But, she can't, not by herself!" Sakura said "Maybe in a few months we can..."

"Sakura, this is important!" he cut her off, slamming his fists on the table, adding a pause for effect, "It needs to be done now".

"So you want to throw her out on her own and hope she can get on her feet by herself?" Sakura said angrily, "she needs help!"

"Yeah, and apparently her friends can't give it, I was there Sakura, I watched it happen, and I saw her reaction, since then nobody has left her alone, we haven't gave her a chance to try for anything, hell, I haven't seen her sober since she returned." Shino said.

Sakura sighed, looking out the window at the Hokage Mountain, she turned to Shino and said "I wish we could find someone to help her".

"Me too, Sakura, me too" he replied.

* * *

On top of the Fourth's head stood a tall man with black hair, but if you took a look at the roots, you could see he was a blonde, he was wearing black denim pants and a blak shirt with the leaf insignia, he had on a large black trench coat wit torn sleeves and black sandals, his eyes though, if you looked at him they would be the first thing you'd notice, they looked like shattered painted glass, pieced back together, and they were a deep slate gray. Beside him sat an old man with white hair, peering down into the hot springs with a pair of binoculars, giggling like s schoolgirl, that is, until a very irate blonde woman punched him in the back of the head, sending him rocketing down to the city below, causing the other ninja to cackle insanely. No, he wasn't completely insane, but ever since the sealing, he had been off kilter. The woman sighed, he wasn't right in the head, yet he could do things even she couldn't, he was becoming too powerful.

The man stared down at the city with unseeing eyes, he wasn't there, he was in his memory. Back when he had a name, a name he cursed, a name he refused to answer to, yet a name it was, and a memory he wished he could forget. That memory was the memory of the day he lost everything, his sanity, his trust, his girl, his adopted family, everything.

* * *

It was his last mission as a team, he was with Sakura and his fiance, Hinata. They were escorting a prisoner from Rock to the village, a Sound ninja who wasn't breaking under the interrogation of the Rock ninja, so he was heading to the Leaf, for a meeting with Ibiki.

They had been on a steep mountain pass, a cliff towering several hundred yards on their left, a sharp drop on the right. It was almost dark, and a half-light was all they had to see by, Hinata had her Byakugan activated, she was scanning the area, trying to spot any way down into the forest, according to Naruto this was a shortcut that he and Jiraiya used on his training mission, but it was longer than the way they came.

Using her eyes, she spotted a figure heading their way. The person looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where, until he was within sight of the others. And suddenly, hewas standing right beside her, laughing his cruel high pitched laugh, making Naruto and Sakura turn.

"Sasuke" Naruto growled.

"Naruto" was his reply, he was standing not five feet from the edge, with Hinata still at his side, Sasuke smiled, before saying "Naruto, do you remember Kakashi's test, what he said near the end.." he moved behind Hinata and pulled out a kunai, placing it on her neck, saying "Kill both Sakura and that piece of trash or Hinata dies" , he started laughing again.

"Grr, you bastard!" Naruto yelled, stepping foreward.

"AH, ah ah" Sasuke said, shaking his finger, his Sharingan glinting in the failing light, "You wouldn't want her falling off the edge would you?, So be a good little demon and do as I say."

"You son of a bitch" Naruto growled, trying to hold in his rage "FUCK YOU, I should've killed you when we fought at the valley"

"You couldn't, you're too weak, now do it." Sasuke said, pulling the kunai across Hinata's throat, just a centimeter, but pressing hard enough to draw blood, causing her to gasp and squirm, struggling to get out of his grip.

The blood sent Naruto over the edge, he found himself standing in front of the cage, looking at the fox.

**Let me kill him**

(Just as long as she is unharmed)

**Agreed**

(Then do as you wish)

The air around Naruto started to sizzle, Naruto's features started to change, his eyes became red, his fangs grew longer, he positioned himself on all fours, red chakra forming an outline of a fox, with four tails.

"Naruto, NO!" Sakura shouted as he charged Sasuke, she couldn't do anything, she was the one gaurding the prisoner, so she stood there and waited for the worst.

Sasuke frowned and threw his kunai, not at Naruto, but off to Naruto's right, the boy didn't care, he charged into Sasuke and the fighting began, with poor Hinata in between them. it was a symphony of terror, Naruto slashing wildly with Sasuke using his arms as a shield, and watching as the precious appendages were shredded, Hinata was being drenched in blood, and Naruto wasn't stopping, she managed to wiggle out of the two combatants, and sat there staring as her fiance tore apart his former teammate. Eventually, she realized what he was doing, and she screamed.

He was eating him.

The sound of the scream made Naruto snap out of his madness. He looked over to see Hinata shaking by the edge, he rushed over to help, only for her to shriek as she slapped his hand away, yelling.

"Get away from me Demon!!"

And from that point on, he hurt. The kunai had killed the ninja, their mission had failed, but Sasuke was dead, but none of the three noticed that the body changed as they walked away, Naruto was caught up in his thoughts, and Sakura was trying to comfort Hinata. They made their way back to Konha in good time, Hinata heading straight to the Hyuuga compound, Sakura off looking for her boyfriend Shino, and Naruto to the home he shared with Hinata, alone. The next day Hinata cancelled the engagement, fully moving back into the Hyuuga compound. Taking her stuff with her.

Naruto tried as hard as he could for two weeks, trying to fix things,and failing, till he went to the compound on the next tuesday, his day off.

He was reluctantly let inside the compound, the gaurds still didn't like him, and escorted to the gardens where Hinata was supposed to be, he went into them and followed the path to where he had proposed to her, a cherry tree, beside a small pond, with a little white bench off the path. There he seen her, and someone else, he seen a friend, a close friend, he seen Hinata and Kiba, kissing, sitting on the bench, he seen Kiba move his hand up her leg, till it was touching her thigh, then, he felt pain, pain and betrayal, by the one person he truly loved, the one who was supposed to love him, then he felt a more real paun, a sharp pain in the back of his head, and he blacked out.

He came to on top of Hinata, who was terrified, he stared into her eyes, seeing nothing but fear, he looked at his hands, noticing that they were covered in blood, but it wasn't Hinata's, he turned his head to the side to see the unmoving body of Kiba and realized what he had done, he turned to Hinata, tears falling from his face like rain, he leaned foreward, and watched as Hinata flinched, he steeled himself and whispered.

"I always loved you, remember that, I-I-I'm so sorry, but I'll do this, one last thing for you, my parting gift, my love.", he kissed her, the most loving kiss he could give, then he stood, and walked to the tree, right in between it and the pond, right where he had proposed, he smiled and pulled out two kunai, and swiftly slit his wrists, he sat down, waiting for death, the fox had stayed quiet the whole time, and didn't even bother to heal Naruto, even to save his own life. Naruto watched, with his fading vision as she went to check on Kiba.

(Well, I guess it's for the best, Hinata I love you) he thought as everything went black.

Naruto woke up in chains, heavy ones. Stretched out, naked, with Tsunade and Jiraiya sitting beside him, tears falling from the old man's face as he looked at his student, one he had trained for six years, a boy almost of age, a man who had lost everything.

"DAMN FOX, I TOLD YOU NOT TO HEAL ME, I WANTED TO DIE" Naruto screamed, staring up at the cieling of a unfamilliar room.

"You will not die Naruto Uzamaki, even though that is the punishment for killing a Leaf ninja, as you have, your master has bargained for your freedom, at the price of five seals on your body, I would rather kill you and get it over with, as it seems that's what you want." Tsunade said to him.

"Just fucking kill me, I've got nothing left to live for"

"SHUT UP!!" she said "Now, get him hooked up to everything before Jiraiya starts drawing the seals" she said to a group of medics, who hurried to get Naruto hooked up to a bunch of machines. Once that was done she turned to Jiraiya and said "Begin"

Jiraiya drew five seals on Naruto's body, on his shoulders and thighs, with a large one directly over his heart, Naruto didn't move or make a sound, he just waited till the old man was done on his body, when Jiraiya had drawn all five seals on his body, and had moved to drawing a large seal around him, he turned to Tsunade and asked

"Any chance I might die?"

"A large chance, either you die, or go insane"

"Good"

Jiraiya finished the large seal and moved about five feet away and drew a small seal, he slammed his hand on it, pumping chakra into it, yelling

"FIVE STAR SEAL"

Naruto's body was enveloped in a white glow, then five distinct colors rose from the seals drawn on his body, the one on his left thigh, started glowing first, yellow with the kanji for 'regret' on it, next came the right thigh, it started glowing blue with the kanji for 'loss', the right shoulder glowed green with the kanji for 'pain', the next one was glowing red, with the kanji for 'hate', the last to glow was the one on his heart, and it started glowing purple, an had the kanji for 'love' on it, and when it started glowin, Naruto started to scream, and the other four grew dimmer as it grew brighter, till it was the last.

"Lady Tsunade, Lady Tsunade, his brain just shut down, and he's going into cardiac arrest!" one of the medics shouted.

"Shit!" Tsunade said, she turned to Jiraiya, "How much longer?"

"Not...long...now" he puffed.

"Hurry, if he dies now the Kyuubi will be released!" She ordered.

"He'll...be...released...if...I...stop"

"Damn!"

Naruto stopped screaming, and the purple light grew dimmer, until it faded completely.

"His heartbeat has returned, and his brain is functioning as well" one of the medics said.

"What's the damage?" Tsunade asked

"Well, not much, the seals appear to be interrupting the flow of nuerons, especially the ones that carry the hormones for emotions, along with blocking several for his self control, also, there is severe damage to parts of his cerebrum that seem to be connected to the seals as well, basically, he's a psychopathic loose cannon with no self-control."

"Well, it's better than what I expected to be left with." Tsunade replied.

"And that would be?" Jiraiya asked, looking at his pupil, passed out from the pain.

"A corpse." She answered simply, gathering the medical team and equipment, she left, leaving him alone with the boy, he turned his attention back to the boy when his left thigh started glowing yellow, then the boy burst into flames, the seal burning off and being replaced with a pentagram, and not moments later, Naruto's insane laughter filled the chamber.

That was two years ago.

He was brought back to the present when he heard a name, spoken softly in hopes that he wouldn't hear. Jiraiya had gotten back up and was speaking to Tsunade, but only one word in their conversation struck his interest, 'Hinata'.

"Hinata" he said, gaining the attention of the other two

"Naruto" Jiraiya said, "Come on, don't lose your temper,"

"That isn't my name!!" Naruto yelled, before looking back down at the city "I loved her".He started shaking, then he turned to the two behind him, his eyes red as blood, "Do not follow", he said, then blinked, his eyes returning to a slate gray, another thing that had changed, after the sealing, his eyes weren't blue, they were either red or gray, it wasn't natural for him. he shot of into the new day almost too fast for them to see

"I think he broke another seal" Tsunade said, "That's four now, we need to redo it"

"You can't just redo it, it'll kill him, along with whoever is doing the sealing." Jiraiya replied.

"Well how else are we gonna control him then?"

"He's not a lab rat, nor is he a puppet, Tsunade, maybe you should learn that." Jiraiya said as he stood up to leave.

Naruto didn't care where he was going, he just ran, he stopped at several places as if he was looking for something, until night fell, then he started heading home, he was almost halfway home when he ran into somebody, literally.

Ino had walked around the city all day, shopping, eating, waiting for nightfall, and when it came, barhopping, she had almost made it when somebody slammed into her side, sending them both rolling into an alley. Ino was the first to recover, and being Ino, she slapped him across the face.

"You insensitive fucking jerk, what were you fucking thinking, running down the streets!" She screamed at him. And continued her rant, until he lifted his head, and she met those slate gray eyes.

"N-N-Naruto?" she said.

His eyes flashed red.

_alright, read and review, I hope you like, I'm writing it all on paper before I type it, so like I said, updates will be a long time in the making, even though I'm gonna work on this three days of the week, every week, enjoy and again, please review. Oh, if you are reading this it means I've went in and fixed several grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes, seeya._


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, a few words before you delve into the second chapter of Five Star Seals: Breaking the Chain That is Love. First, thank you to those that have reviewed, I really appreciate it, you helped me fix some things and provided me some topics to cover in this chapter. Next, thank you to those that have read this story, I spent a lot longer than I should trying to write this one after my first went sour, so it's good to see that this one took off nicely. Last, I'm sorry, I won't be able to update this story again until sometime after the beginning of September. My reason being, I don't have chapter three fully written yet and I want to get chapter four finished before I post chapter three, have a little cushion in there so that this doesn't happen again, I hate making people wait past the first dates I set. So enjoy this chapter and please review, it helps me a lot.

I don't own Naruto, nor will I ever.

Ino woke up in an old bed, in an old room, trying to remember the night before. Sadly the memory slipped her mind at the moment. She stretched as she got out of bed, realizing she was in a pair of pajama pants and a shirt, she looked around and spotted her clothes sitting on a dresser by the door. She walked over and picked them up, noticing something underneath them, it was a towel. She smiled to herself, someone must have been reading her mind. She grabbed her clothes and walked out of the bedroom. She surveyed the apartment layed out before her, to her right was a bare wall, to her left was a hallway with an open door at the end, the door led to the bathroom, in front of her was the apartment's living room, and where the wall on her right ended, a kitchen counter began, and from the kitchen came the smell of pancakes, and the sound of frying bacon.

She resisted the urge to rush into the kitchen, instead, she walked as quietly as possible into the bathroom. She flicked on the light to find that the bathroom was painted a bright orange, with yellow trim, _Woah, _she thought, _a little too bright for morning._She set her clothes on the floor by the door and turned on the hot water. When the bathtub was full she walked to the door and locked it, throwing the pajama pants and shirt into a hamper by the tub, she stripped, then lowered herself lazily into the water, letting her body soak up the heat. She didn't really wash so much as let the water clean her, sitting in the tub for a good ten minutes before deciding to get out.

She toweled off and quickly got dressed, noticing that her clothes had been washed as well. She chacked herself in the mirror and thought to herself, _Oh yeah, I look good. _She checked herself over, just in case, then walked into the living room. It was a small living room, only big enough for a small TV, a coffee table, and two chairs. The walls were a slate color with white trim, much different from the bathroom, but it was a cozy room, one of the chairs was a recliner, open with blankets on it, indicating it had been slept on. She walked to the counter and looked to her right, seeing a small kitchen, and a man at the stove, fixing pancakes, eggs, and bacon. He was about her age, with black hair, blonde roots, she cocked her head to the side, trying to remember if she had ever seen him before, well, she had seen him last night, apparently, then he turned around, and she stared into a face she hadn't seen in a while, and it all came back.

Flashback

_"N-N-Naruto?" Ino said._

_His eyes flashed red "don't call me that." he said, barely restraining the anger in his voice._

_She looked at him questioningly "Why, that's your name isn't it?"_

_"It's a name I hate." Naruto said, staring back at her._

_"Why do you hate it?" she said, still looking confused._

_"It's just the shame the name bears that I hate." he said, looking away "You wouldn't understand." he turned his back to her and stared at the city, or what you could see of it. This street was on the West side of the city, and it was on a hill, so you could see most of the city from it. They were completely silent for several minutes. Ino was trying to think of something to say, but her stomach said it for her, it gave a large growl, and Naruto turned to her smiling._

_"Well, I knocked you down, so I guess getting you some food would be the gentlemanly thing to do." he said, a small grin on his face._

_"Sure!" she said, brightening up._

_"His smile grew into a mischievous grin "Then I guess it's a date."_

_"OH it is SO not a date." _

_"Is too."_

_"Fine."_

_"Really?"_

_"If it's a date, no ramen."_

_"Aaaww, you're no fun."_

_Naruto led Ino to a restaurant on the otherside of town. It was a large building with a toad in an apron on top of it. The toad was sitting in front of a grill with a spatula, it's mouth opened in a huge grin. Naruto took her inside and flashed a card to the girl at the counter, she nodded and rung a bell, almost immediately, two waiters grabbed Naruto and Ino, taking them to a table in a secluded corner. They were served immediately, two huge stakes drenched in a homemade bourbon barbecue sauce. Ino just sat there staring around her._

_"What is this place?" she asked Naruto, who was already shoveling down his food._

_He stopped eating "This is the Swamp Steakhouse, owned by the Toad Sanin and his apprentice, in short, welcome to my restaurant, hope you like the food." and with that he immersed himself in the enormous baked potato that came with the steak._

_"So, you own this place?" she asked._

_"Yep, I provided almost a years worth of savings from A-rank missions to buy the property, hire the staff, and buy the supplies. It's a good investment though, I can bring anyone I want here and they eat for free, I even get paid as well." he smiled as he ripped a huge hunk out of his steak._

_"Do they take it out of your check?"_

_"Nope, my check is split in half, one half goes to my bank account, the other goes directly to the Ninja Academy." he said, stopping to take a drink._

_"You give money to the Ninja Academy?!" Ino asked in surprise._

_"Yep, I donate under a false name though, the head there doesn't care for my, 'condition',the last time I used my real name they burned the money, saying it was counterfeit."_

_They sat in silence for a moment, Ino burning in rage. She knew Naruto was a jinchurikki, but that didn't make him a bad person, in fact, everything he had ever done in his life he did for the village, and the still treated him like shit. She pushed it off her mind and tried to start a conversation with him, he brightened considerably, and the rest of their time at the restaurant was enjoyable. _

_As they were getting ready to leave, Naruto asked, "Do you have a place to sleep?"_

_She was taken aback, "Not really" she said._

_"Then bunk over at my place." Naruto said, "I'll sleep in one of the chairs."_

_"Okay" she said, still shocked at his kindness, her friend had changed. He wasn't as hyperactive anymore, and he seemed to have lost some of his undying optimism, along with gaining a lot of manners, she wondered how much she had changed. After a moment of grim thoughts she shrugged it off, and followed Naruto back to his apartment._

She was snapped back into reality when a huge plate was passed under her nose, she jumped so high she nearly hit the ceiling, gaining a laugh from Naruto.

"Man, it took me forever to snap you out, I've only been trying for ten minutes now, jeez." he said with a smile on his face, "For a moment I thought you had died."

Ino snatched the plate of food and sat down at the small kitchen table, grumbling. This only made Naruto laugh harder. "Will you shut up?" she said after a while.

Naruto stopped "That's not a very nice thing to say." he said, pretending to look hurt.

"Does it look like I care."

"No, and that's the problem."

"Why you little..."

"Hey! Don't call me little"

They sat down to breakfast smiling, Ino had eventually beat him at the arguing game, due to his forfeit to protect the safety of his mind. (She had made the signs for mind transfer.) The breakfast went well, it didn't need forced conversation like the night before, so, they enjoyed it more. Finally it was time for Ino to go, she had to meet some of her friends for lunch later today and she wanted to run some errands for her mom. She did promise to come over that night for a while, and Naruto once again offered to let her stay over, she agreed.

After she left, Naruto walked into the backyard. When the Third died, he left the building and grounds to Naruto, so Naruto decided it would be a good idea to rent out the rooms, no one ever lasted long and it was not much more than a decent hotel for travelers, but it made good money. The backyard was his though, he kept the it under lock and key. He had taken the ten acres of land and created his own park there, complete with pond and training field. He wasn't going to these yet, he was heading directly into the center of the park, and at the center, was a monument. It stood about fifteen feet tall, and was made of onyx, it had three figures, and in front of each was a bowl, in these bowls he placed a stick of incense, the one in the middle was slightly back of the others, he lit that incense first, filling the area with the smell of evergreen. The figure on the left was lit second, filling the air with the scent of a lake. And the last to be lit was the right, adding the scent of a conifer forest. The smells soothed Naruto, as he sat there, paying his respects.

When the incense died out, he got up and walked over to his training field. ever since the sealing he had lost a huge quantity of his chakra reserves, so he trained here daily. Two years ago he barely had enough chakra to create five shadow clones. But now, his control was something marvelled by every ninja in the village, and his reserves had returned almost to normal, every morning he would create as many shadow clones as he could, his highest score so far was 6,971. He readied himself, made the sign, then channeled his chakra. With a giant poofing sound, and the whole area was filled with Naruto's, all standing calmly, Naruto took a quick count, 10,000. He had surpassed himself, he allowed himself a smile before dispelling the clones and continuing with his training.

Lunch came and Naruto fished in the pond, catching three decent sized trout, which he cooked an ate beside the monument. Relaxing in the shade, enjoying the breeze, he waited the rest of the morning away. Sadly, he didn't stay out much longer, it had started to rain outside.

* * *

Earlier that morning.

Ino walked through the streets, shopping bags in hand, and sighed. Her mother needed way too many things to feed just two people for a week, of course, she knew what her mother was trying to do, she was trying to get her to move back in with them. Ino laughed at the idea, her dad didn't like when his daughter had moved in with her teammate and his wife, he didn't like it when she had started dating Choji, and he didn't like it when he found out Choji had proposed. But the one thing he hated most was her, she did what she wanted and didn't care about the consequences. Her mother knew that if she put her daughter and her husband in the same room, there would be one more body in the morgue the next day, and as she told him before, it probably wasn't going to be Ino's.

Yet her mother was still trying to fix things. Ino hadn't forgotten anything, especially the night she took everything she owed and left, she still had the scars, and from what her mom said, dad did too. She lugged the stuff back to her parent's place and knocked on the door. To her surprise, her father was the one who opened it. They stared at each other, Ino was tight lipped and her father looked about ready to explode. But he kept his cool, and turned around, shouting.

"Honey! The whore's at the door with your stuff."

Ino snapped, she dropped the bag and punched her dad as hard as she could, his head snapped backward, and she felt his jaw break, but she didn't stop there. She swung her knee up, and they connected with his family jewels. He fell to the ground, Ino kicked him in the stomach and leaned over, whispering in his ear.

"If you ever...call me that again, I swear I will cut off whatever you have down there and force feed it to you, got me." she looked back up and smiled, picking up the bags, she handed them to her mother saying, "Sorry for the trouble, here's your groceries, I've gotta go." and with that she took off down the street. Hoping nobody could see her cry.

And now she sat at a small restaurant, with Sakura on her left and Ten Ten on the right, along with Kurenai and, much to their discomfort, Anko. The two older konouichi had seen the girls sitting there and decided to join. Kurenai was alright but Anko... not good.

Now Ino stared off into space, thinking about last night, this morning, tonight, and most of all, Naruto. He had become screwy in the past four years, but then, she was pretty skewed herself. She had been out of the loop too long. All her friends had changed, but had she stayed the same. She wondered that now as she stared out of the window.

"Ino, what are you thinking about?" Anko asked, a mischevious look on her face.

"Naruto" Ino replied, not paying attention to anything.

"WHAT??" Sakura screamed, snapping Ino out of her thoughts.

"I mean, I ran into him last night, he's changed, you all have, but not so much as him. I'm just wondering why, and how."

Anko piped up "You mean you don't know! Wow! You have been spaced for the last few years!"

"Save it Anko." Sakura said "So you don't know what happened?"

"No, what happened?" Ino said, looking like a female version of Shikimaru, just staring up at the ceiling, a bored look on her face.

"He'll tell you when he's ready" Anko said, her face plastered with glee.

"Yeah" Sakura said, thinking, "What he tells you is probably different from the hundreds of stories out there about it."

Kurenai spoke up "But aren't you his teammate? Shouldn't you know."

Sakura turned to her "When Kakashi died our team was broken up, he hasn't been my permenant teammate in almost six years" Sakura's face clouded.

Kurenai looked taken aback "Oh right, Kakashi, sorry to bring up bad memories Sakura."

"It's all right."

Ino finished her tea and left. It was raining outside.

* * *

Naruto had been napping in his recliner when the doorbell rang. He was woken up immediately, he grabbed the shirt he had been using for a pillow and put it on, then he answered the door. He opened it to find a soaked Ino standing on the landing in front of his door, he dragged her in immediately and wrapped her in a thick blanket. Then rushed into the kitchen to make hot chocolate, and when it was ready, he waited until she stopped shivering to hand it to her. She studied the bright pink cup, she could tell that one side had been painted over, and she carefully scratched away the paint, revealing a pearl H. She looked up at Naruto, her eyes asking him to explain.

He hesitated for a moment, then said "My ex-fiance bought everything in the house, from the orange towels to the knickknacks I have in a little box in my closet. She said she wanted to make my house more 'livable'. Apparently she didn't find it so. Three months after she completely redone the apartment, she moved out, cancelling our engagement." he looked like he was going to say more but stopped himself.

Ino had no such inhibitions "Who was your fiance?"

Naruto looked at her, as if contemplating "What does the cup say?"

"It doesn't say anything, it just has a pearl H on it."

"It's the same color as her eyes. Can you guess it now."

"Hinata?"

"Yeah, she and I were to be married in a week when she left." his eyes clouded over, and she knew he was lost in a memory, because she too was remembering her fiance.

She took a chance "So, you know she got out of the asylum don't you?"

"Yes."

"And you know why she was in there?"

"Yes."

"And are you willing to part with that information?"

"Maybe one day I'll tell you, but not tonight. I have a deal for you, this floor is all suites, and I will not rent them out, but because you and I are friends, I will let you move into the one next door to mine. Don't take it the wrong way, but it's the only one you'll find suitable to your taste, trust me on that, Hinata designed it for you before she left, she was going to have all of the rookie 9 living up here."

"Really?"

"Yes, it was all some part of a big plan she had, and she wouldn't reveal the details to me." he smiled as he remembered those days.

"Thank you."

"No problem, hey, how about we ditch the chocolate for something stronger" he said as he walked over to a cabinet. "A little welcoming party, we could use a party right about now." he said as he rummaged around in the cabinets, "Aha! I found you, you little beauties." and with that, he pulled out two bottles filled with an almost luminescent green liquid.

"What's that?" Ino asked, looking at the bottles with interest.

"A little something I procured on a mission once, It's a shame I only have two left, I had a full case of thirty. Here, it's called Absinthe, a European drink that supposedly has three times the spirits of Sake." he said, uncorking both bottles and handing her one, along with a shot glass, which she ignored.

"Nice, something new." Ino siad taking a swig out of the bottle. Naruto laughed and poured a shot.

"I'm going to be the one that holds your hair back aren't I." he said with a sigh.

Ino knew automatically it had been a mistake to drink from the bottle. Once the liquid touched her tongue everything went blurry._ They were right. _she thought, _Three times the spirits,ugh._ She was hammered and she knew it.

Naruto seemed immune to the effects, and soon picked up a bottle that still had almost three-fourths of the green alcohol in it from a passed out Ino. He then dragged the poor girl to the apartment next to his.

The second day in a row Ino woke up to a strange ceiling, in an old bed, in an old room, but not Naruto's. She vaguely remembered last night's conversation, she tried to get up, but once she was upright, a wave of nausea hit her like a ton of bricks, and following shortly afterward was the headache. She lay back down and covered her head with a pillow, thinking,_ I'll never drink Absinthe again._

She tried to get up slowly an hour later. She succeeded and made her way to the her bath, she checked out the apartment. This apartment was almost exactly like Naruto's, except the color. Hers was a deep purple, with a white trim. and hers had a window that looked directly into the park behind the building, and she could just barely see the tip of the monument from here.

She dressed quickly and opened her door. She heard voices coming from Naruto's room and decided to slip away quetly. She had places to be. She just didn't know where yet. She got past his door and headed off into town.

She was walking down Main Street, enjoying herself, when she walked past the interrogation office she stopped. A random idea was forming in her mind, an evil idea, one that could be so fun._I am gonna get her back Sooo good,_she thought with a grin as she slipped into the office.

Anko woke up to a slight pressure on her chest. She woke up and looked down to see Ino's head buried in her boobs, moaning. She looked a little lower to see the girls hand in her pants, working away as fast as they could. Anko was bisexual, and she admitted it. And this was why, her face shot backward as a massive nosebleed acted like boosters on a rocket. And that is when they heard it, Anko looked in the direction of the front door to see Ibiki giggling and covering his nose. Anko was about to say something when Ino stood up and pushed her hand outwards, showing that she hadn't been in her panties at all, her hand had been in between the two.

"Too bad." she said to Anko, but she helped her up, and in a teasing way said "I might've actually went into my panties if it wasn't for our little peeping tom."

Anko was fuming, she stared at Ibiki with pure loathing, the man gulped.

"Shall we?" Ino asked.

"We shall." Anko replied.

Ibiki's screams were heard all through the city.

* * *

At Naruto's apartment.

Naruto and Jiraiya were sitting in the chairs, passing a bottle of sake back and forth. Jiraiya seemed concerned about something.

"Naru-um, you know why I'm here right?" he said, almost saying his name.

"Is it to give me a mission, I've been waiting for months" Naruto said excitedly.

"No, I-uh, one of my friends overheard someone saying that they 'ran into you', and the chef said you had two steaks brought out when you visited the Swamp Steakhouse, I want to know what's going on."

"Nothing old man, I ran into her, quite literally, and then I took her out to eat as an apology, no big deal."

"Yeah, but my friend also overheard her say she was coming here that night."

"You are having people spy on me and my friends again aren't you master."

"No, it's nothing like..."

"Right." Naruto said, cutting him off, "And that's why you have that conversation, that's why you knew I had a friend at the restaurant, I am able to take care of myself, and my friends can do the same for themselves."

"Yes, but it's what you might do to them that worries me."

"Then you worry too much, I swore to never harm another Leaf ninja, as long as they tried to do no harm to me or my comrades."

"Yes, but we both know how easily oaths can be broken, son of the Fourth. The village broke theirs the day after the Kyuubi was sealed."

"They are civillians, I am a ninja, and I have never broke my word, you know this."

"All I know is your rage, your uncontrollable anger, you will hurt somebody, I'm sorry, but that is my fault, I performed the sealing, I knew what it would do."

"Then unseal me and both of our problems will be gone, the flow of neurons will return to normal and I can be free. It helps us both."

Jiraiya got up and opened the door, he turned back to his apprentice and said "If only I could, but the seals can only be broken by the one they are placed upon, I'm sorry." and he left, leaving Naruto to finish the sake in peace.

Naruto made it his business to stop all of Jiraiya's spies, so, much to his displeasure, he stayed away from Ino for a while, well, not really. He was under a henge, and he soon found the spies, and 'persueded' them to quit their job. But he couldn't avoid Ino altogether, nor did he want to, they had built a friendship on what was, in a day long since gone, barely even an acknowledgement of each others' existence. He invited her over regularly, and he even helped her with her mother's 'errands'. And, what came as a surprise, he came to hate her father more than she did.

And so, two months after she moved into the apartment complex, she began to wonder again. She decided she was going to get answers from her friends.

So there they were, minus Ten Ten and Kurenai, at the same little restaurant where they had begun this conversation. Ino leaned forward and said, "I need to know what you know about Naruto, he's my fucking next door neighbor for christs' sake."

"All right sweetie." Anko said, trying to put on her sexiest voice, "I'll tell you what I know, but in return, I want a kiss, _below_ the waist please."

Ino sighed "For the last time Anko, it was a joke, a prank, I don't want in your pants nor do I want you in mine, get over it." Anko hung her head in defeat.

"I'll tell you what I know" Sakura said, looking bigger by the day now, "I know that after our mission, Hinata was afraid of him, and there was something else she wouldn't tell me. Right after that she went to an assylum and Naruto was brought into the E.R with deep lacerations in his wrists, I treated them, they were self inflicted. That night, he and a medical team disappear for four hours, and he comes back weak and weird. When we sent him home, he didn't leave the place for a month, and then, when he does, he looks and acts like he does now. And that's all I know."

Anko shot her a glare, then said "Well, since Mrs. smarty-pants Aburame over there gave you all that, I guess I can give you what I know, you might find it more useful, if you're on a mission with him, don't get in his way. Once he starts killing, he won't stop, I went with him to take out a gang of rogue ninja, all jounin, he fucking annhialated them, I only got to kill three people, and there were more than eighty, but he would just cut them up, at the time I thought I was sadistic. Compared to him, I'm normal."

"Thanks." Ino said gloomily "That's good to know." she got up and left. The two women sitting looked at each other. Things were starting to get weirder than usual.

Naruto woke up to someone knocking on the door. He got dressed and answered it, it was Ino. Without waiting for an invite, she marched in, and sat down in the other chair. She stared at Naruto and said.

"I'm your neighbor and your friend, I need answers to several things, and I need them before I can fully trust you, so, either you..." she was interrupted by someone knocking on the door.

"Shhh." Naruto said, and pushed her into his room, he closed the door then went to answer the front.

Ino had her ear to the door, trying to hear anything.

"Jiraiya, what a surprise, come on in"

"Thank you, Naruto, what you have wanted has just came."

"A mission?"

"Yes, you are to bodyguard an Ino Yamanaka on her next mission, A-rank, she will be using her clan's jutsu to infiltrate Sound and find out who is leading them, as ordered by the Hokage and the Kazekage."

"So it was true, Gaara sent me a letter saying that they had been attacked by Sound, not as massive as the Sound/Sand invasion here, but of the same magnitude, how will it be carried out?"

"She will take over the mind of any sound ninja in the area and use his body to get into their village, bringing you and her body as prisoners. Once she finds out who their leader is, she will set you free and return to her body, you are to make sure you protect her body at all costs."

Naruto nodded, then turned to the bedroom and said "Get all that Ino?"

Ino stepped out of his bedroon, nodding. Jiraya looked surprised, but kept his tongue.

"I have one question." she said, "Why isn't my father doing this mission?"

"Apparently he has lost the use of his mind jutsu." Jiraiya said, "Now, get packed, you leave in two days, travel light." and he turned and walked out the door.

The next day came, and with it, her urge to know about Naruto grew, until it was all consuming, she decided to go into the park, where she knew she would find him. She walked through, following a small stone path, and there she saw him, paying his respect to the three figures.

"I think you are wondering who those are" Naruto said without turning, "Come closer and you will see."

"And how do you know I will know them?" she asked.

"You will know two of them."

She studied the figures, but the shadow was too thick upon the two on the sides, "I cannot see the two on the sides, and I don't know the one in the middle. It has a gender nuetral face, I can't tell who it is."

"Nor should you be able to." Naruto said "His name was Haku. He was a ninja from Mist, traveling with a rogue named Zabuza Momochi, he helped me create my nindo, or part of it, he fought for what was precious to him, just as I fight for the people precious to me, Kakashi killed him, it was a strike meant for Zabuza, but Haku jumped in the way. And then, Zabuza died right beside him not five minutes later."

"Wow"

"The sun should move out of the clouds any minute now, when it does, you will be able to tell me who the other two are." and sure enough, the sun moved out of the way, and she saw their faces, she gasped.

"Sasuke and.."

"And."

"And Kiba...But how?"

"Sasuke tried to kill Hinata, so I let the fox rip him apart, then I saw Hinata with Kiba, kissing, I lost control of the Kyuubi and killed him, then tried to slit my wrists for those crimes. Akimaru wasn't there, he was with his mate, watching their first litter come into existence. If he'd have been there then Kiba might have survived." he then became silent, then finally said "Tsunade had Jiraiya place five seals on me, they completely suppressed the Kyuubi's chakra, but I've broken most of them, there is only one left, love."

"Love?"

"Yes."

"But...why?"

"Tsunade was afraid of the demon."

"The fox?"

"No...me."

OK I hope you enjoyed, I sure did, I spent ten hours and seven cups of coffee to get this done, so, read and review, and I'll see you September., on the side here, if you are reading this past 3:00 P.M., July 9, 2008, then I have corrected several mistakes I found in the text.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Here it is folks. This is the mission chapter part 1, I was going to have it all in one, but then I wouldn't have as much in chapter four, so I just decided to end this at the climax of the mission (as if there isn't three of them in it), I know you would want to finish the mission all in one go, but I can't just shorten the fourth chapter for it, the end of the mission has importance there, It's out early, but I posted chapter sixteen on Metal Isn't Always Cold and put it aside till Christmas. I was itching to post it, so here it is, expect the next chapter mid-September or early October, I'm sorry, but I'm working as fast as I can. I think I'm an idiot for writing the chapters on paper before typing them. Although it is easier than trying to come up with things on the fly, like I'm doing with Metal Isn't Always Cold. So for about four months I'm hoping to pump out at least five or six chapters, that shouldn't be too hard. Also, that means that I'm going to start writing another story, it's a little thing I've got, I started this one-fourth of the way into Metal (codename for now), so I'm going to pick up a third story until Metal is finished, then I'll finish this one before I begin another story, but to choose my third story, I have set up a poll on my home page (I finally got it up and running right!!), the poll has been set up since July and I'll end it after Christmas, that should be a good length of time, I hope you like the stories I have dragged out of my disastrous mind ( I'm Bi-polar people). All right that's enough rambling, on with the show!

I don't own Naruto. I have to ask, do we really need the disclaimer anyway? I mean, the only reason we write on Fanfiction is because we love the manga but we don't own it, it's pretty obvious, if you owned the manga, your story would be in the manga, am I right, of course I am, now on with the story!!

* * *

Three days later

It was a quiet morning. The forest was just awakening from its slumber, a quiet mist covered the ground below, but in the canopy, something was moving.

Naruto jumped to the left as a kunai embedded itself in the branch he was standing on. In his arms was a young woman with blonde hair, she looked to be sleeping, but she wasn't. Earlier before, he had stumbled across a Sound patrol and dragged all but one Sound ninja away; the woman had performed her jutsu and was now lying limp in his arms. Or was she?

Ino was not in Naruto's arms, well, her mind wasn't. She was currently occupying a mousey Sound ninja with a huge sword. Naruto grunted as a kunai entered his right shoulder _Damn_, he thought; _this fucking plan is pissing me off_. He was just supposed to make it look like a chase for a while, then he could rip them apart, but these Sound ninja were accurate as fuck,_ If I keep this up I'll turn into a porcupine_ he swerved to the right and found himself facing grassland, with a cliff directly ahead of him. He heard the ninja stop behind him.

He sighed and turned around. "Are you sure we can't talk this over guys, I wouldn't want to have to kill you, and I definitely don't want to put this girl on the cold hard ground, so how about you just run off and I continue on my merry fucking way."

The sound ninja laughed, one of them stepped foreword, the leader of the group. "You think you can take all of us by yourself?" he asked with a grin "You must be joking, no one would be that stupid." He smiled as he pulled out a sword.

Naruto looked at the ninja in front of him. He was waiting for a signal; he studied the mousey ninja in the back. The ninja nodded, and then readied his sword, at that moment Naruto pulled two kunai out of the pouches on his legs, he spun them around once; then pointed them at the two ninja standing beside the leader; he smiled.

"Ah," he sighed "the kunai, a ninja's favorite tool besides their jutsu, great ranged weapons, and very handy in close combat, you can use it to stop ranged attacks, or to slice open your opponent, very agile, sturdy enough to break through the ribcage, and long enough to pierce the heart, but short enough to be carried around easily, the perfect tool if you ask me, it's almost godly." He said, staring fondly at the knives in his hands, and then he was gone.

The ninja wasted no time; they quickly formed a circle and prepared for battle, the two he pointed the kunai at were facing away from where he had been, and were peering into the bushes around them. The leader shifted his gaze from right to left, he didn't like this; his gut said something was wrong, and he was trained to rely on gut instinct. He settled into a different stance, and then he felt a spray on his sleeve.

He turned to see Naruto standing in between the two ninja, holding onto the two knives sticking out of their backs. The spray came from both wounds, where Naruto seemed to have struck something important. Naruto smiled.

"Apparently I _can_ take out all of you." He said, the bloodlust radiating off of his body in an almost visible wave. He pulled the kunai out of both ninjas and laughed at the spray of blood that drenched his face, he licked his lips "Ah, satisfying. He sighed as he licked both kunai clean "You know," he said, "I prefer the blood to be from the carotid artery, it has such a sweeter taste than the metallic tang that the pulmonary vein produces, it's too bad, it would have been a real treat to get that much candy, and I've been such a good boy and all."

The leader and the other remaining ninja jumped over to a different tree. They sat there for a moment. The leader seemed horrified at what he had just seen, but his horror turned to anger almost immediately.

"Damn you, you fucking monster!" he said, panting "We had orders to take you alive, but I think I'll kill you for what you did to my men." He smiled, then grunted as a sword sprouted out of his chest.

The mousey ninja behind him smiled, and dug the sword deeper into the other Sound ninja's back. "Weren't expecting that, were you." He said with a smile.

Both Naruto and the mousey ninja watched the leader fall off the tree. Naruto looked up and smiled "That was easy enough." He said "I did think there would be a little more resistance though, it wasn't as fun as I'd hoped."

The mousey ninja sighed "Yeah, I thought these ninja would be of a higher caliber, but at least the plan is going smoothly." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a food pill, he took it and smiled "This should give me enough juice to carry you till I meet another Sound patrol." He said.

"Don't forget to carry your own body too, if the plan works, we'll be at the Sound base for a couple days. I don't think I can find my way back here after we escape" Naruto said, cracking his knuckles.

The mousey ninja looked at him warily, "What are you doing?" he asked.

Naruto smiled "I've got to rough you up a bit. What will the Sound patrol say if you drag a big guy like me in and you don't have a scratch? They might get suspicious."

The ninja paled "C-c-come on, you wouldn't hit a girl, would you?"

Naruto laughed "At the moment you're not a girl Ino" he said, stepping foreword.

The ninja sighed "I hate you Naruto, I really do."

Naruto laughed "Keep telling yourself that Ino."

* * *

A Day Later

Four Sound ninja jumped over a small creek. They were in charge of patrolling this sector today. As the leader touched ground he raised his hand. The ninja behind him stopped and spread out, forming a loose circle. The leader, a tall ninja with jet black hair, peered into the bushes in front of him.

Moments ago, just before he landed, he thought he saw movement in the brush. He signaled his team to proceed, but as they were preparing to move, the brush started to move again. The team formed a tight circle and slipped into defensive stances. A few minutes passed, and then something large fell out of the brush. The four ninja jumped back and pulled out kunai.

The leader examined the object; then put away his knife, he turned to his teammates "Calm down, it's one of our ninja, he looks to be injured, let's get him back to base."

The ninja quickly ran over to their fallen comrade. He was a mousey ninja with horrible injuries, his right arm was broken, and his face was bruised, all of it. But the ninja had a hold on something, two things to be exact.

"Sir, sir!" one of the ninja shouted "He's got two prisoners, looks like he dragged them here!"

What!?" the leader asked "Show me." He said walking over.

The ninja pulled back the brush to reveal a large man with black hair, bleeding from several cuts along his body, and a woman with a large bruise on her face, both with Leaf headbands.

"Well, who's our guy" the leader asked.

The ninja that found them spoke "Sir, he's a friend of mine; his name is Kaname Hoshiki, he left with a patrol group two days ago, they still haven't reported in."

The leader sighed "That's because they're probably dead." He said

One of the other ninja stepped foreword, pointing toward Naruto "Sir, do you know who he is, he's…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know who he is." the leader said, he turned to the girl "but why is she still alive?"

"Well" another ninja piped in "She was with him right? Maybe he thought she could be useful."

"Hmm." The leader scratched his head "Maybe, let's just get them all back to base quickly. Master wants the boy alive."

"Yes sir." The others said simultaneously, they hefted the three on their backs and jumped into the trees, heading south.

Four hours passed and the group found themselves in front of their leader. The man stared ruthlessly at the group below him. They had explained themselves and were waiting for his reply.

Their master sighed, he was an average sized man with black hair, he wore black shinobi pants and a pure white button up shirt, on his side was a katana. "Bring in Kaname, I wish to speak with him." He said coldly.

Two ninja, who were standing behind him, muttered a quick 'yes sir' and left the room. The man then turned back to the team in front of him "Did you identify the prisoners?"

"Yes sir." The team leader said "The woman has been identified as an Ino Yamanaka, while it was determined on site that the man is none other than Naruto Uzumaki…"

"WHAT?" their leader yelled, cutting him off. He was silent for a second, than smiled "So we finally have him, and I can pay him back for what he has done." His smile deepened "Tomorrow, bring him to the sparring grounds."

"Yes sir."

The team left and not long after an Ino possessed Kaname entered the chamber escorted by a doctor and the two men who had been sent to retrieve him.

"Here he is sir." They said before returning to their places behind him. The doctor stepped away from Kaname so that he could be viewed easier. Their leader got up and walked over to the boy.

"Kaname, tell me what happened." He said in a cold voice.

Kaname/Ino looked up and gasped "S-sa...um, sir?"

"Tell me what happened with Naruto."

"Oh, okay" Kaname said, while, in the recesses of the ninja's mind Ino was freaking out, _It's Sasuke!_ She thought wildly, _But he's supposed to be dead, Naruto killed him._ Kaname/Ino took a deep breath, and then began.

"We had been out for about three hours when we came across those two heading here. We engaged them and I got the girl away from the others, I managed to knock her out and went to help the others. By the time I got there only our team leader was left alive, I joined in and was thrown into a tree, the man stole my sword and then attacked the team leader, finally impaling him. The man had received a lot of injuries fighting with the others, but he was still tough, it took all I had to knock him out, and then I decided to carry both of them back here."

The leader frowned "But why did you keep the girl alive?" he said, his eyes boring holes into Kaname/Ino.

"Well, she was traveling with _him_, so I thought she might have some useful information for you sir." He said flustered.

The leader stared at him for a moment longer, and then spoke "Fine, if that is all you know then you can go, and be at the sparring grounds tomorrow at noon, I want the whole village to be there when I destroy Naruto Uzumaki once and for all."

The Ino in Kaname's mind gulped, that didn't sound good. She didn't know if Naruto had the power or the mental strength to fight someone he thought he had killed a long time ago. But the one thing that kept flashing through her mind was.

_Sasuke's the Sound leader………_

* * *

Naruto sat in a small cell. He wasn't worried about himself, if something bad happened, well, that's why Ino wasn't in her body. She was his lifeline, a last resort, he was worried about_ her_. She had been out of her body for almost thirty hours now, and he didn't know how much strain was being put on her mind. He sat in his cell, holding onto something, her body. It was his duty to protect it, and it was not going to leave his arms. Once in a while he would reach into a secret pouch on the inside of his pants and pull out a soldier pill; he would then pop it into Ino's mouth, he had to keep her chakra up, that way if something happened to him her body would have enough chakra for her to escape, the information she now had must get back to Konoha, at all costs.

The window on his door opened to reveal an angry looking ninja. "Your execution will take place tomorrow at noon." he said, then slammed the window shut.

* * *

Ino was frantic; she didn't know what to do. She had been in this man's body for what seemed like an eternity. She kept feeling a tug in the back of her mind, her body wanting her back, she was thankful that Naruto was as sneaky as he was, or she would have been in trouble. It was thanks to the food pills he had been giving her that she was still in this body. But that wasn't her main worry, she was worried about what would happen tomorrow when Naruto seen Sasuke. Anko had told her that Naruto's bloodlust was enormous, and there was and endless amount of outcomes for their reunion at noon. She inwardly sighed and readied herself for a sleepless night. She couldn't sleep because it would weaken her control of Kaname's mind, that and she was too anxious to stay still long enough to fall asleep.

Tomorrow was going to be hell, no mistake there. She just hoped she'd be ready for it.

* * *

Naruto was dragged out of his cell still holding onto Ino's body. The ninja tried to get her away from him but he wouldn't let go. He was pushed and shoved into an arena; there he was bound till noon. At exactly noon the area started to fill with people; and not long after, a procession made its way to the arena. Naruto looked up, and his eyes widened.

Sasuke smiled "Surprised to see me loser?" he asked with a grin on his face.

Naruto felt his bindings cut, he rubbed his wrists, then said "I killed you Sasuke, I left your entrails all over the road; you should be dead."

Sasuke laughed "I used the same jutsu the Akatsuki used, that was one of my men you destroyed. I must say, the look on your face is priceless loser."

Naruto growled "I'd quit while you're ahead Sasuke, I don't want to have to kill you again. So just let me and the girl go."

Sasuke frowned "Not a chance Naruto, Tsunade sent you here to find out something, what is it?" he asked, his voice cold.

Naruto smiled "You're right." He said "We were sent here to find out something, and we've done it. If you really want to know, let us go and I'll tell you when the Leaf shinobi come to destroy this pitiful village."

Sasuke backhanded Naruto across the face "Shut your insolent mouth!" he said, the anger in his voice rising. "I am going to kill you here and now, I will have my brother's eyes."

Naruto started laughing "You're a year late for revenge, I polished off Itachi and the rest of Akatsuki last spring, your brother is dead, so I guess there is no revenge for you."

Sasuke backhanded Naruto again "Shut up! I will kill you, make no mistake there, and then I'm going to carry out my revenge, on both you and my brother, I am going to destroy the Leaf Village, I am personally going to burn it to the ground. I will take away your dream, Naruto, just like you took mine." Sasuke started to laugh.

"Go ahead." Naruto mumbled.

Sasuke stopped laughing. "What?" he asked; something close to fear in his voice.

"Go ahead." Naruto said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Destroy Konoha. See if I give a shit." He stared at Sasuke defiantly.

"B-b-but what about your dream?" Sasuke stuttered, his advantage over the brute failing quickly. Naruto was making a fool of him in front of his subordinates. "You always said you wanted to be Hokage, it was your dream."

Naruto stood, making everyone remember that he wasn't bound anymore. "The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konohagakure, never gave a flying fuck about me." He looked up at Sasuke, revealing his slate gray eyes. "I have no allegiance with Konoha, they hated me, the only allegiance I have is with those who still consider me a friend. I don't have many of them anymore either, my last two years have been hell, but you've been underground and don't have that info do you?" Naruto pulled out a mist bingo book, he tossed it at Sasuke. "Here, read under my name."

Sasuke looked at the page and read. "Naruto Uzumaki, Jounin, nicknamed the Demon Hidden in the Leaves, height 5'9", weight 180 lbs., hair color black, eye color slate gray, has an insatiable thirst for blood, unstable, will kill any enemy ninja on sight, has been known to lose control of emotions and engage in a killing frenzy, shows no allegiance to his village, will attack his comrades if they are impeding him, if seen, do not engage alone, if possible, kill on sight." He looked up at Naruto when he was finished.

Naruto smiled. "You've been out of the loop Sasuke; dreams die, just like people, just LIKE YOU!!" Naruto screamed the last words like a war cry as he attacked the man in front of him.

Sasuke barely had enough time to activate his Sharingan and evade. But as he stepped to the right he felt something tear through the skin on his arm, he hadn't seen the kunai in Naruto's hand when he had charged, and his eyes had barely been able to catch that. Sasuke wasted no time in drawing his sword and swinging it at his former teammate.

Naruto deftly dodged the blade and then charged at Sasuke again. Sasuke stabbed foreword with his sword, but met only air, at the last second, Naruto had jumped into the air, Sasuke felt a weight on the blade for a split second as Naruto used it as a springboard to propel himself over Sasuke in a somersault, Sasuke swung his sword around just in time to stop the kunai from severing his spine.

Sasuke smiled "Now who's trying to stab who in the back?" he said, trying to fray Naruto's nerves.

Naruto just smiled back "Of course, remember, 'unstable, will kill any enemy ninja on sight', I'm not the pushover you knew way back when. Those eyes won't help you against my speed."

* * *

Ino watched the fight from the sidelines, she was still in Kaname's body, but soon she'd have to vacate it. The body was getting weaker, and she was almost out of chakra, she was trying to think of a plan when a kunai embedded itself in between her feet, she looked down, and attached to it was a small note. She bent down and picked it up.

_Get back to your body; I'm getting us the fuck out of here._

_Naruto_

She looked up to see him bite his finger.

* * *

Naruto watched with satisfaction as his last statement sunk in. Sasuke's eyes widened and he became a little paler than he had been a moment before.

"You lie!" he hissed at Naruto.

Naruto pouted "Sasuke, I would never lie to you." He smiled, mirth filling his eyes, and then he was gone.

He reappeared behind Sasuke and kicked him square in the middle of the back. Using this distraction, he took the note he had been scribbling ad attached it to the kunai he had stolen and threw the blade at Kaname, who had been standing in the front line of viewers. He watched him pick it up and read it. Naruto knew his message had gone through, so he bit his finger and made the necessary hand signs. Sasuke's eyes widened once more, an explosion shattered the air, and the underground bunker started to collapse, smoke filling the arena.

When the smoke cleared, a panting Naruto and an exhausted Ino sat on top of a Gigantic toad. Naruto smiled as he looked at his friend.

"Hey GamaBunta, long time no see, sorry I haven't summoned you sooner."

**Naruto? What kind of mess are you in now?**

The giant toad looked down. He smiled mischievously at the ninja below him

**Don't tell me you're picking on the Sound without me again Naruto**, **I'm hurt. **

"That's why I brought you out, you think you can keep these guys company while Ino and I put some distance between us and them?"

**What do you have in mind?**

"How about we go for a big boom."

**Sounds like a plan to me.**

GamaBunta took a deep breath and spat out a huge torrent of oil; Naruto made a couple signs and shot out a stream of fire. When the fire met the oil, the oil immediately caught fire, sending a wave of fire at the Sound ninja below. The ninja immediately forgot about the two ninja who had just escaped, instead they set out to put out the fires.

* * *

Naruto and Ino sat on the branch of a tree. They had chosen this spot because it was the perfect place to rest. It was far enough away from their enemies to provide some time to recuperate, and high enough to see a pursuit if one did occur. Naruto panted, he had used up a lot of chakra in the past couple days without being able to regain any, and he hadn't slept for two days, but he took the first watch anyway, Ino had had it a lot rougher than him. He watched the sun set behind the plume of smoke and smiled, Sasuke would be hurting in the morning.

* * *

Sasuke had his hand over the left half of his face, shielding his horribly burned skin from the light, and from view, he looked down on his five most powerful ninja.

"Find them, kill her, and bring him back to me, he will pay for this, I don't care what shape he is in when he gets back, just as long as I get to kill him myself." He said, barely controlling the anger rippling in his voice.

The five disappeared, and he sat down at his desk to write a letter to a very good friend. Naruto would pay with not only his life, but hers, and all of Konoha's, his revenge would be complete.

* * *

Tsunade was looking out the window like she was watching out for something when an old man walked into her office.

"I just received a messenger bird from him." the old man said icily. "He said that they had infiltrated the Sound base and learned his identity."

Tsunade turned around, staring at the man. "How did you get a hold of the letter before me?"

Danzo looked aside "I have been in contact with the boy for years now. He sent it directly to me." He looked a little uncomfortable.

Tsunade gave a suspicious glance "I didn't think Jiraiya would allow it."

Danzo twitched "He doesn't know of it yet."

Tsunade smiled "Well I guess we should send backup." She said, filling out a form, she handed it to Danzo.

Danzo smiled "I'll send out my best Anbu." He said before he left the room.

Tsunade smiled_ Who'd have thought Naruto would know Danzo_.

Outside the tower Danzo smiled _She is a foolish kage, it is almost too easy to use her. _

He quickly headed to ROOT headquarters. There he summoned his five best ninja. Within thirty minutes of leaving Tsunade's office, he had his best lined in front of him, ready for the mission.

"I'm sending you as backup, kill our enemy." Danzo said before he passed around a folder with a detailed description of the people and a couple pictures. "These are your enemies, memorize their faces, here are the papers to leave the city" he watched as the pictures got to the ninja he chose as team leader, the ninja stared at one of the pictures, before tearing it apart.

"With pleasure sir." The ninja said.

Danzo smiled "And wear you masks, if they survive we don't want them identifying you"

"Yes sir." They said in unison as they put on their masks and left in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

A Day After Their Escape

Naruto was lying in the bushes by a creek. Ino was not too far away from him. Naruto had felt several people chasing them earlier and decided that it would be best if they hid for a while. They hadn't seen or heard anything in hours.

"Do you think we lost them?" Ino whispered quietly from her hiding place.

Not a second after Ino spoke a foot slammed down where she had been a moment earlier. Both she and Naruto stood on a branch above the five ninja that circled the bush they had been hiding in. Naruto had his hand over Ino's mouth his glare indicating that she had fallen for their ruse. He studied the team below; there were four men and one woman, all average height, one man held an axe at least six feet tall, other than that, they looked like average shinobi.

Naruto stared down at the ninja below. They were good; he hadn't known they were above him until Ino opened her mouth. He was glad he was fast, or he would have been carrying Ino home in a body bag. A few leaves rustled beside him. He paid no attention as he continued to stare at the four ninja below….wait, four?

"Heh, you're pretty fast, I didn't expect you to be this good." A voice said from beside him. Naruto turned to meet a fist and both he and Ino were rocketed off the branch and onto the ground. Naruto recovered quickly and pushed Ino behind him.

"These guys are mine." He growled, his eyes following the one who hit him as he jumped down from the tree.

"Well then pretty boy," the woman said seductively, she had dark blue eyes and her hair was nearly white, but she couldn't be older than Naruto himself, "Why don't you get over here, and we can play."

Naruto tensed and prepared to charge when a kunai flew out of the woods to their right. It scattered the Sound ninja and gained a squeak from Ino. And in all the confusion, only Naruto sensed the approach of the Anbu.

The sound group looked around quickly after reforming, their leader stepped foreword. "Show yourself." He said to the empty forest, and to his left, five ninja dropped out of the trees, five Anbu, the leader sighed "Don't scare us like that." He said, exasperated.

Ino had been relieved to see fellow Leaf ninja, and now she was confused, "What?"

The leader of the Anbu stood "Naruto Uzumaki, Ino Yamanaka, our orders are to kill you." He said emotionlessly.

Naruto smiled "All the more I get to kill." He said as he ran at his enemies.

* * *

I hope you liked the chapter; I look foreword to giving you the next one mid-September. Till then, I love ya, read and review.


	4. Chapter 4

And here is chapter four, I have been slaving away at this, trying to get everything right and this is the best I've been able to come up with. The mission bit itself is sound, but the return trip to the village seems to be rushed, and no matter what I've done it keeps looking like that. Sorry, but you'll have to deal with that. Unlike my other story, I DO NOT know how this one will end up, I started writing this one on a whim and it's done well so far. But I'm actually getting caught up in this story as much as you guys are, I just barely have an idea for how I'm going to end it, but I've had several ideas and they've all met the trash can, so until I start writing a chapter, I'm almost as much in the dark as you guys. The only thing I have over you guys is a basic idea on what I want the chapter to be, so I'm conjuring up about five thousand plus words out of almost nothing, so I'm glad you like this story. In my opinion it is a lot better than my other one, but I still don't know if it's as good as the three stories going first and tied for second in my poll, the ideas for those were perfect. Hee hee.

I have also stumbled upon another idea, I've put it on my home page, but I'm not putting it on my poll, not out of dislike for the story, because I think it would kick ass, but because I have absolutely (screaming in despair) "_NO FUCKING CLUE" _on how to write it yet, but if I come up with one before Christmas, that motherfucker will be on that poll, I seriously doubt it though, but if you guys like it, PM me on it, I'd be happy to take suggestions on how to set it up, I'm seriously in the dark on it and I HATE it when I'm like that, that's why I'm taking a break from Metal, it just drove me up a wall to know that I couldn't see what I was doing. I knew exactly how it was going to end, I knew what I wanted the storyline to be like, I just couldn't write the chapters how I wanted to, that's why I'm taking a break from it for a while, trust me, it's for the best.

Okay, something for those that might be confused on ages and dates. The Rookie Nine are all twenty-one, Choji died when they were seventeen, and Naruto had the seal placed on him when they were nineteen. All in all, it has been five or six years since the beginning of Shippuden; which I completely changed; I just wanted to clarify that before I went any further.

Enough of that, I took too much time, here is the next installment.

* * *

_"Well then pretty boy," the woman said seductively, she had dark brown eyes and her hair was nearly white, but she couldn't be older than Naruto himself, "Why don't you get over here, and we can play."_

_Naruto tensed and prepared to charge when a kunai flew out of the woods to their right. It scattered the Sound ninja and gained a squeak from Ino. And in all the confusion, only Naruto sensed the approach of the Anbu._

_The sound group looked around quickly after reforming, their leader stepped foreword. "Show yourself." He said to the empty forest, and to his left, five ninja dropped out of the trees, five Anbu, the leader sighed "Don't scare us like that." He said, exasperated._

_Ino had been relieved to see fellow Leaf ninja, and now she was confused, "What?"_

_The leader of the Anbu stood "Naruto Uzumaki, Ino Yamanaka, our orders are to kill you." He said emotionlessly._

_Naruto smiled "All the more I get to kill." He said as he ran at his enemies._

* * *

The Sound ninja didn't react quick enough and soon found themselves defending from every angle as ten thousand shadow clones poofed into existence; several thousand attacking the newly arrived Anbu. The clones attacked on every open area, completely covering the Sound ninja with an endless barrage of punches and kicks. The barrage didn't last long, when every clone that could make contact did, an explosion destroyed all of them, including the ones who hadn't engaged in battle, as well as throwing every other ninja in the area almost a hundred feet. Only the clones fighting against the Anbu quite a distance away survived.

Naruto recovered first and rushed in to attack. The five Sound ninja were standing in a circle creating a barrier; Naruto roared and ran at it, aiming for the woman. He impacted against the barrier; then through it, dragging the woman with him. The other four jumped out of his way as he bodily picked up the woman and slammed her against a tree; they smiled as the feral Leaf ninja crumpled in pain as his ear picked up a high pitched ring.

The woman dissolved into mud as her real self jumped out of the bushes. "Foolish boy." She said with a smile "I used the sound of that impact to create a ring that effectively paralyzes my opponent for several minutes; you don't stand a chance against me."

Naruto growled and stood up, his legs shaking, he smiled. "Is that all you got?" he said, bloodlust radiating from every pore, his eyes glazed over with it. "If that's the case then this will be no fun at all. Your buddies had better put up a decent fight, or I'll have to go extra easy on those Anbu over there to extend my fun, not that they'll survive today though."

"Impudent whelp!" their leader shouted, his fists clenched, "Do you have any idea who you are mocking? We are the Sound Five, the strongest ninja in the Sound village; we will crush you like a bug for our master."

Naruto laughed "And has your master told you that one of your targets was one of the five that decimated the first Sound Five, including their first leader Kimimaro?"

All but the leader gasped, he just stood there, shaking with fury.

"You destroyed Lord Orochimaru's most faithful servant? I doubt you have that amount of power."

Naruto grew serious "No, I didn't destroy Kimimaro; I was too busy chasing after Sasuke, who was running for his life."

"And why was his life in danger?" the woman asked, seeming scared of the Sound leader coming close to death.

Naruto smiled, one of his original, goofy smiles "Because I was chasing after him, believe it!"

Ino groaned. _He hasn't changed at all, he's still the idiot he was five years ago. And I thought he'd changed._ She thought, even if the smile on her face said otherwise.

The Sound ninja growled, the leader stepped foreword "You may have had a hand in destroying the old Sound Five, but this time around you face us," he spread his arms "Seiren." The woman smiled, "Kiryu." The man with black hair lifted his right arm, allowing the sleeve to fall down and reveal a drill in place of his right hand, "Kurosu." The man with the flowing black cape nodded, "Rengoku." The largest pulled a huge axe from his back, "And you may call me Touga, or…"

"Yeah I know, Ten Fangs, do you really think that scares me, I slaughtered the Akatsuki, and that includes your master's brother, you should offer me no challenge, especially that little bitch." He said, pointing at Seiren.

Seiren screamed and attacked, she cupped her hand and the air around it started shimmering, then she threw a flaming ball of energy at Naruto. Naruto dodged and studied the attack as it hit a tree, melting it in less than a second.

_She gathers all the combustible gasses in the air and compresses them, then throws the energy at her opponent, melting them on contact._ He thought as he dodged another. "Makes sense." He mumbled as he began his counterattack. _Here is the first ball._ He thought, jumping to the left, still running at her, counting the seconds._ Exactly one point zero-eight seconds to create the energy, that's still a large amount of time, big enough to strike before she can use its full power._ He jumped over the second ball. _But if I'm right, she should be able to use that for close combat, somewhat like I use my rasengan, and if that's the case, I have to strike in the three tenths of a second margin before she begins to create another._ He ducked under the third. _I should get my chance to hit her right after this ball, but she's making them faster, I should've realized that she would hide her true production speed until she needed it. This screws up my strategy, but it's too late to retreat, if I pull back I'll get fried for sure._ He dodged the fourth ball and came in for the strike, seeing this, she prepared to hit him with her sound jutsu; her hands were outstretched toward him when another Naruto burst out if the ground at her feet, his fist connecting with her chin and launching her into the air. The Naruto she had hit with the sound exploded and the real Naruto cracked his knuckles.

"When you guys destroyed my clones, I had one impersonate me while I hid underground waiting for the perfect moment to strike." He said with a smile. "When she attacked I followed under her feet, using my mental link with the clone to read her every move, and then I waited until she had used her little sound jutsu on my clone before I went in for the kill, her neck is broken in three places, one shard of her vertebrae has severed not only the Carotid Artery, but the vein and the spinal cord as well, she is dead, and I didn't even get one drop of candy, oh well, life isn't fair. Who's next?"

Touga looked at his fallen companion "B-but how?" he said "How could you do that with only one punch?"

Naruto smiled "I had the Fifth Hokage teach me the secret behind her immense strength as payment for paying off most of her debt. It really comes in handy when your teacher is a perverted old man, that and I used an earth jutsu to rocket me out of the ground with the force of a cannon, combine the two and I could shatter a mountain without breaking a sweat."

"Really?" Kurosu said in a gentlemanly manner. "Let's put that to the test. As if a peasant like you could harm me, one of noble blood and stature, you don't stand a…" he was cut off as Naruto threw a punch that sent the man flying into a tree.

"I always hated aristocrats." Naruto said as he licked Kurosu's blood off of his knuckles.

Kurosu stood, a line of blood running from his mouth. "You! You dare hit me! A noble. For this crime there is only one punishment, death." Kurosu was standing in the shadow of the tree, he smiled; then disappeared.

Naruto smirked "You think a little bit of genjutsu can defeat me?"

Kurosu laughed, except the laugh was coming from everywhere, or to be precise, from every shadow. "This is no genjutsu, Master spoke of another who had a jutsu similar to this, but that boy is dead."

Naruto's eyes became unfocused. "What was the name of that boy's jutsu?"

"I believe Master said it was called 'Crystal Ice Mirrors'. But what does that matter?" Kurosu said from the shadows.

Naruto growled. "It matters more than your life. That boy's name was Haku, and yes, he is dead, do you know how he died?"

"I'm sure Master must have killed him."

Naruto smiled. "No, it is only because Haku had a kind heart that Sasuke still walks this earth. Haku died at the hands of our old sensei, he was protecting a man named Zabuza Momochi from your masters' signature move, the Chidori. Haku put over eighty needles into Sasuke, but avoided any vital areas, all because he did not want to kill, in the end, it was I that saved Sasuke, Haku was going to finish him off, and I wouldn't allow it."

Kurosu laughed. "Master was nearly killed, and then saved by your hand; certainly you are lying; that is more likely in a fairy tale than here in the real world. I cannot believe you."

Naruto gave a small smile. "I'll let you believe what you want, but Sasuke never told you about the outcome of the battle for that reason, if you survive, which you won't by the way, you should ask him, or since you are going to die, when I send him to Hell for good this time, YOU CAN ASK HIM THERE!!" Naruto shouted the last part as he created several shadow clones, all attacking the shadows in search of their opponent.

Naruto stayed back as each clone that stepped into the shadow was dispelled. _This one must really be a fool, all I have to do is step into the shadow, and when he attacks me I can grab him and pull him out into the open, and then I can kill him and eat some candy. _He was thinking along those lines as he rushed in the shadows, where he was assaulted by a barrage of senbon. He was thrown back in the middle of a grove of trees, all producing shade, laughter rang from the shadows.

This is where my jutsu differs, although you could not get into the mirrors, you could break them, you cannot break shadows, and what's more, I can attack the shadows as well, which means I am untouchable, and now it's my turn to show you my type of sound jutsu."

A clap rang out from all directions. At first, it was just a clap, but then the sound increased to a roaring that threatened to bust out Naruto's eardrums. The sound kept getting louder and louder, until Naruto was on his knees in pain.

Kurosu stopped the onslaught and emerged from the shadows. "Tsk, tsk. Not very strong are you?" he said "I believe I've tortured you enough, now to take your pretty little head."

Naruto smiled. "Actually, I think I'll take yours."

Kurosu was going to laugh, that is, until his head was removed from his body by a swipe of a machete pulled from a holster on the back of the Naruto standing behind him.

"Ahh, this is my favorite knife, it always decapitates just right." Naruto said fondly as he licked the blade clean before cleaning his hands in the same fashion. "You see, this whole time I have been fighting against the Anbu over there, the clones that took the hits and threw the punches were reinforced with a large amount of chakra, I allowed this one to be caught in your friend's jutsu to reveal his position, I have always hated noblemen and their overly confident attitude, this one believed he was better than a veteran ninja, and it cost him his life. Stupid fool, he does have very sweet candy though." Naruto explained as he licked some of Kurosu's blood away from the severed head and the neck of the dead gentleman. He turned to the three Sound ninja still standing. "Well?"

Kiryu laughed. "I think I might have me a challenge here." He said, readying his drill. Without a moments hesitation he launched himself foreword and hit Naruto in the gut; the clone poofed out of existence and the drill started to spin. Five Naruto's dropped from the trees above and attacked simultaneously, each meeting his drill as he moved with lightening fast stabs. "Come on boy, I know you're more of a challenge than this. I wanna hear you scream when my drill gets the real you, it's gonna be sweet, sweet music to my ears."

Naruto busted out of the ground in front of Kiryu, throwing another super powered punch, and was amazed as he made contact with the drill. And all of a sudden, he felt very tired, he wondered why, and then it hit him. _That drill feeds on chakra._ He thought as he was thrown several yards. He stood shakily; then smiled.

"Your drill." Naruto said. "It feeds on chakra right."

Kiryu smiled, "Wrong, my drill feeds on life energy. It's a lot more stable than chakra, and for my jutsu I need a more stable substance. Don't worry, it won't matter, my drill has fed recently and I only need a little more before I can unleash my jutsu, you'll be dead shortly and then I'll put the girl out of her misery for you."

Naruto was fuming, his hair stood on end and his voice came more as a growl than words. "If you ever touch any of my comrades, my friends, I will not hesitate to give you the most painful and slow death in existence and then follow you to hell to torture you for eternity." His body was shaking, and the blood lust radiating off of him was enough to make Ino gag.

Kiryu smiled. "And how do you think you're gonna do that?"

Naruto smiled. "Your time alive is at an end, whatever jutsu you have planned, you better use it now, this is your one and only shot to kill me, it's the real me charging this time."

Naruto ran at Kiryu head on. His eyes were burning with rage. Kiryu smiled and raised his drill. A blast of red energy shot out in all directions as the drill picked up speed, now spinning so fast it seemed to disappear, a shimmer being the only indication it was still there.

Kiryu laughed. "How do you like my jutsu? It's just getting started; wait until you get to see the finale, Song of Atonement, Stage 1: The Coffin!"

The red energy created a barrier around Naruto, completely boxing him in. The barrier took shape as a gigantic coffin lying on the ground. Naruto looked around; this was going to hurt, badly.

"Kiryu raised the drill straight into the air. "Song of Atonement; Stage 2: The Mourning!"

The coffin rose into the air, Naruto with it. Naruto growled. "Just use the damn jutsu already, this is taking too long!" he shouted down at Kiryu.

"You mock me!" Kiryu shouted back. "I'm going to explain to you what this jutsu does so you don't die ignorant. I use the life energy I have taken to create a coffin, then, using my connection with that life energy, I pump a powerful blast of sound into it, and then let it reverberate, increasing it's speed every second. Your body, after about ten seconds, will explode, and then I release the life energy, which dissipates immediately. You are about to be destroyed, any last words?"

"Yeah, just hurry up."

"Shut up you bastard! Song of Atonement; Stage 3: The Orchestra!"

A ringing filled Naruto's ears, and he prepared his last defense. He made a mental note to thank Jiraiya for letting him train with Temari to sharpen his skill with wind jutsu. The ringing intensified to a roar. He had precious seconds left.

* * *

Ino watched in horror as the jutsu began to take effect, and she counted the seconds as it went along, tears falling from her eyes, she was going to lose another friend today. And she was being made to watch. She reached ten and the barrier shuddered, the walls turned a deeper shade of red and it was over.

She took in the sight for a second before reality sunk in and she screamed.

"NARUTO!!"

* * *

Naruto had been counting as well, safe inside a little bubble of wind he had reinforced with his chakra to block out the sound waves. He reached ten and felt the shudder, but what shocked him was the scream, filled with pain and loss. But what shocked him most about it was who it came from. He felt the barrier collapse and let bubble dissipate, he hit the ground running.

"Ino!" he shouted as he hit the ground, he ran around a dumbfounded Kiryu to the woman who had collapsed behind a wall of his clones. He reached her and sat down beside her. "It's all right, I'm alive; nothing that weak would kill me. Ino? Ino!!"

She didn't answer, she just stared at him; and then, after a few seconds, her hand shot through the air and connected with Naruto's cheek, sending him flying a few feet. "Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again." She huffed. Naruto laughed; then grabbed hold of his left arm, and then she noticed the blood running down it, along with the other cuts that covered his body, and the rips that covered his clothes. "You're hurt." She said, kneeling beside him.

"It's just a side effect of my jutsu, nothing to worry about." He grunted as he stood.

"Side effect?" she asked.

Naruto started walking toward Kiryu. "I created a bubble of air around me, the only problem was, to keep it soundproof, the winds had to be moving fast enough to make a solid wall, and it had to be dense, so I pretty much trapped myself in a super powered wind-scythe just now, but I'll be fine, someone has to take these guys out, and you're still too weak from using your jutsu for so long."

He smiled at Kiryu. "Hopefully you heard my explanation, I'd hate to have to give it again, but I don't want you to die ignorant."

Kiryu frowned. "Yeah I heard ya." He said, readying his drill.

"I hope that wasn't you're best jutsu, if it is, I'm going to be really disappointed." Naruto said, pulling his machete out of its holster and pointing it at Kiryu. "Like I said, your time alive is at an end. I am known as Naruto Uzumaki, the Demon of the Hidden Leaf, I bring death to any who cross my path, you are no different. For you, I am Death. I am the reaper in all his glory. I will send you to hell Kiryu." He said as a red aura encompassed his body, his blood lust permeating the air around him, and then he charged.

Kiryu stood still, paralyzed with fear. There was no way anyone could survive his jutsu. Maybe this man was a demon, he certainly looked like one. That fueled his anger. He, Kiryu of the Sound Five, would not be bested by anyone.

Damn you, Demon!" he shouted, charging as well. "If I am to die I'm going to take you with me! Song of Passion: The Scream!" His drill stopped spinning, and the red energy flowing from it transformed into a sword, he cackled insanely as he rushed at Naruto.

The two connected. The area around them was bathed in flame. Naruto gasped as Kiryu's sword entered his shoulder. And Kiryu grunted as Naruto's machete passed through his heart and a lung. The massive explosion of two huge energies colliding covered the area in dust.

* * *

Ino saw the charge, but the dust obscured her view of the two combatants, and just as the dust started to clear, she felt someone grab her by the neck.

* * *

The dust cleared, revealing a standing Naruto and a kneeling Kiryu. Both weapons were still inside the wounds that they created and it was only because of this that Kiryu was still upright.

"H-how are you so strong?" Kiryu gasped, hardly able to breathe. "A-are you really a demon?"

Naruto pulled his machete out of Kiryu and licked it clean. "No; demon is only a nickname I've had since I was young. I am strong because I fight for something."

Kiryu looked at him. "W-what do you fight for?"

"I fight to fulfill any oath I've ever made. I have never gone back on my word; even when I was a loyal dog of Konoha. I told you I was going to kill you, and you will die. And you were so sure you could take me with you, why did you fight?"

Kiryu looked at him. "Revenge, my family was killed by a Konoha shinobi when I was a child; I hid in a closet and watched. And when he was finished he took off his headband and threw it on the ground."

"The only proof is the headband?" Naruto asked. "You are a ninja; he was probably an imposter, forcing you to hate Leaf ninja so he could use your rage to create a beast to kill his enemies, just like your masters' brother. He killed their whole family just to make his brother hate him. And so Sasuke has lived a wretched existence, and will do anything to get his revenge on people who have done nothing to him. And if you had lived past today your existence would end up the same."

Kiryu looked aside. "Maybe you're right, but it doesn't matter if I die, Touga is about to make your life hell." He coughed up a glob of blood, and then chuckled until darkness consumed him.

* * *

Naruto watched as Kiryu died, pondering his last words, until he heard Touga speak.

"Rengoku, hold him off! I'm going to leave him up to you, I need to get this precious cargo back to the village!" he shouted, pointing at Ino, who was struggling to get out of the brute's hands.

Naruto rushed at him, but was cut off as a huge ax buried itself in the ground in front of him. Naruto growled as he looked at the giant at the other end of the ax.

"Touga said Rengoku must hold you off. So Rengoku is going to." The giant said; a blank look on his face "I show you my jutsu, Rengoku Ultimate Smash!"

The ax came down again. And with it a powerful blast of sound; threatening to decimate Naruto. Naruto dodged by replacing himself with a clone and threw a kunai at his opponent. Rengoku made no move to dodge it and it hit him square in the chest. He pulled it out and rubbed the wound.

"I didn't know there were bees this big. Rengoku hates bees, Rengoku must smash them." He said, bringing down his axe again.

Naruto dodged and studied his opponent._ He's big and stupid. _He thought idly. _Just like Raijin and Fujin. But I don't think food would work on this guy, and I need to get to Ino fast._

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted, running at the behemoth with his signature jutsu swirling in his palm. He made contact with Rengoku's head and sent the giant spinning into a boulder, knocking him unconscious.

_Not how I wanted to leave the guy. _Naruto thought as he took off after Toga, mentally noting that the five Anbu were following. _But I need to get to Ino. I can take him and these Anbu out after I've ripped Toga apart._

* * *

Naruto shot after Toga. He was moving as fast as he could and his wound was hurting badly. He saw his prey up ahead and yelled.

"Touga!! Put her down."

Touga stopped and turned around, Naruto stopped and studied the surrounding landscape; they were in a secluded clearing. The trees and brush surrounding them were so dense that it would be impossible to walk through them, and the undergrowth was like that for almost ten feet, only a ninja could get out of this place.

"I have the woman! If you move, she dies; get me?"

Naruto turned his head to face the noise. Touga had one arm slung around her to keep her from moving, while he had a clawed hand at her throat. Touga's appearance had drastically changed. He had taken a beast-like form, and surrounding him were ten large animals that looked like a cross between a bear and a lion. Naruto stepped foreword.

"Nope, you stay right there or your pretty friend gets a second smile." Touga said, pressing his claw against Ino's throat. The claw nicked the skin and a trickle of blood began to flow.

Naruto saw the trickle of blood; and immediately his demeanor changed. If he had been furious before, he was completely enraged now; his eyes were clouded over with not only blood lust, but a rage so absolute Touga felt it like a physical blow. Naruto spoke roughly, in a deep growl that made Touga's beasts quiver.

"_**I told all of you. If you harm any of my comrades; I told you that I would kill you in the most slow and painful way possible, even if I die in the process, you, Touga, will die in a matter of seconds, I have your punishment, I will boil your entrails while they are still floating in that living corpse you inhabit. Death calls for you!"**_

"I don't think you can back up those words" Touga said with more confidence than he felt.

"_**Really?"**_ Naruto asked from beside him._** "Because from where I stand, you are already dead."**_

Naruto clubbed Touga in the head; making him drop Ino. Then he punched Touga in the chest, sending the man into a tree. Touga looked with fearful eyes as this new Naruto; one with absolutely no mercy, walked toward him. He made up his mind, he had no chance of running, and no chance of survival, but he could finish what Kiryu started

He gripped his right arm as it began to change. The limb's end engorged and split apart, growing teeth and a throat, eyes popped out of the fur, and soon the head of a bear had replaced his hand.

"Now you die!" Touga shouted. "I'll kill you both as payment for destroying my team!"

Touga charged, the bear roaring furiously. Naruto smiled and created a Rasengan before charging as well. The bear snapped at Naruto, but he dodged it effortlessly before slamming the Rasengan into Touga's chest.

"_**You're dead, you will just have to wait for me in hell, I'll see you there, and we can continue, your whole team against me, see you then."**_ Naruto whispered into Touga's ear as he wrenched his hand out of the Sound ninja's chest. Naruto sighed and the aura around him dissipated; he turned to Ino, who was lying on the ground a few feet away.

"Are you hurt?" he asked her as he helped her up. She shook her head and prepared to jump out of the clearing, Naruto's arm shot out in front of her. "No, this is the best place to fight our little friends. I didn't get to finish the Anbu back there, and they've been following me since I took off after you."

"Oh." Ino said as she looked into the trees where Naruto was staring. "I had forgotten about them."

Naruto smiled. "Kind of hard to remember them isn't it, considering they haven't done anything yet. Now we wait for them to make a move."

"Oh, but we have made a move, and now we are waiting for yours." One of the Anbu said from behind them.

Naruto turned to face the five. He looked at all of them separately, sizing them up, and prepared for their strike. He waited for several minute, and when it was obvious that their attack was not forthcoming, he spoke.

"Come on, I don't have all day, attack already."

One of the Anbu stepped forward. "We wait for your strike." He said.

A kunai shot his way and he easily avoided it, he turned to his fellow Anbu and nodded.

"There, you have my strike, now come on, I'm waiting, and use the best you've got; the last five weren't as fun as I hoped." Naruto said.

Four of the Anbu pulled out swords and rushed at Naruto. All of them were using the same attack.

"Crescent Moon Blade!" All four shouted as they swung their swords.

Naruto never made a move to dodge. He stood there waiting for the blades to hit. The sound of four swords making contact with flesh rang out across the clearing. Naruto stood, as if still waiting, but four swords were buried deep into him, two on his shoulders, and two in his sides.

Naruto sniffed, then sighed. "No fun at all, how come I never get to have fun, I should have ripped Sasuke a new one, hopefully he's stronger than all ten of these guys put together or I'll be bored when I go to kill him, after I decimate those responsible for _this_." he said, pointing at the Anbu, he seemed to be talking to himself.

He vanished; then reappeared behind the ninja, driving a Rasengan into the backs of two, ripping them apart and throwing their lifeless bodies across the clearing. He pulled out his machete and swung upon one of the others, cleanly slicing him in half. The last of the attacking ninja turned to run, and got about half a step when the machete sailed through his head, thrown by Naruto, it dug itself into a tree beside the leader of the Anbu, who stood there unfazed.

"You are a lot stronger than I expected. I did not plan to have to face you in battle myself." the ninja said as he unsheathed his sword.

Naruto cocked his head. That voice seemed oddly familiar, but he pushed the thoughts aside as the ninja sprung foreword and performed an upward slash. Naruto dodged to the right, grabbing his machete from the tree, both ninja readied themselves, and then charged at each other with blinding speed.

Ino watched as the two ninja engaged in an epic sword fight.

Naruto was laughing as he and the Anbu leader fought, both unable to make it past the other's defense. "You are a worthy opponent, but that's only because I suck with a sword." Naruto said, blocking a stab at his ribs.

"And you are stronger than I believed possible." The Anbu replied "Oh, and to tell you the truth, I'm no great shakes with swords either." He ducked under an especially fierce swipe.

Naruto threw his machete on the ground, the Anbu stopped midway through a charge, Naruto smiled. "We both suck with swords, so why are we fighting with them, toss yours and let's fight ninja style.

The Anbu chuckled and flicked his sword to his left. Naruto was preparing to charge when he heard the scream; he turned to see Ino holding her right leg, the sword sticking through it.

The Anbu laughed. "You were so intent on fighting me that you forgot you had an ally in battle as well. And she was so focused on watching us fight that she forgot to protect herself, you both are foolish beyond measure."

Naruto grabbed him by the throat. "And you dropped your guard, now you die." Naruto said as he unleashed a furious barrage of punches to the mask that covered his adversary's face, the last throwing the Anbu into a tree. The ninja managed to stay upright, his mask falling apart.

Naruto charged, pumping chakra into his fist.

The last piece of the mask fell, revealing the ninja's face.

Ino screamed.

Naruto's fist was inches away from the face of his opponent; he had stopped when he recognized the face of…

…Kiba Inuzuka.

* * *

Naruto was still, his fist inches away from Kiba's. Kiba smiled, and Naruto growled, pushing his fist forward; feeling it connect with Kiba's nose. Kiba's head snapped backward, colliding with the tree, he fell unconscious at Naruto's feet.

Ino pulled the sword from her leg and limped to Naruto, who had retrieved his machete and was preparing to decapitate the man who lay at his feet. Ino grabbed him around the waist.

"Naruto, that's Kiba, he's not an enemy! He's not our enemy!"

"Kiba is dead." Naruto growled, but he made no movement.

"Then let's take the imposter back! We can let Tsunade deal with him."

"She sent him after us."

"Let's go back and see if it's true." She said softly

Naruto opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed his eyes and turned away, giving in. "Fine." He said, and picked up their prisoner. He didn't speak the whole way back to Konoha.

Two days passed and both Naruto and Ino were soon standing in Tsunade's office, both had scowls and Naruto carried a large sack on his back. Tsunade sat at her desk looking at them questioningly.

Naruto didn't wait for her to ask anything. He threw the sack down on her desk and opened the top, revealing the head of Kiba, still attached to his body. The bound ninja was awake and looked angry to be tied up and shoved into a sack.

"Care to tell me how a team of five Leaf Anbu came to be sent to kill both Ino and I." He said coldly as he stared at the woman in front of him.

Tsunade gasped.

* * *

Oh, I thought you guys might want a hint on the choice of names, I chose them but I didn't actually come up with the names off the top of my head, here is a little insight on the choices. Seiren is a mix of _Sei,_ which means 'star' and _ren_ means 'to smelt' or 'refine'. Now you see why her hot powers 'makes sense' to Naruto. Kiryu is a mix of _Ki_, which means 'auger' or 'drill' and _ryu_ means 'life'. Fitting for Kiryu, isn't it. Kurosu is the Japanese pronunciation of 'cross'. But _Kuro_ means 'black' and_ su_ means 'master'. Black master is the perfect name for Kurosu and his jutsu am I right, of course I am. Rengoku means 'purgatory'. I just like the bone chilling feeling that name gives off, and a giant like him needed a scary name; I think the choice is fitting. And like Naruto said, Touga means 'Ten Fangs'. When it comes to where I got the names, I urge you all to read a manga called 'Vampire Knight' by Matsuri Hino, all the names I've chosen, including Kaname from the last chapter, came from the pages of that wonderful, beautiful book.

If anyone hasn't noticed by now, well, whatever. I usually write my feelings before I write the chapter, or some of them, and then complete the chapter and finish with some things that have been on my mind, or some explanations about the story, so what was at the beginning of the story is month old news. Oh, I hope you enjoyed the déjà vu scene near the end, if anyone recognized. For those, if any, who didn't, look back at the Wave arc.

I hope you enjoyed the battle scene, I thought I would try to make it more of a strategic one since the last two were a little small and weren't as thorough, well if you didn't like it there is nothing I can do about it, see you guys when chapter five is up, and that should be mid to late-October; my computer is toast for now and I don't get a lot of time to write without it, sorry. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review, until next time.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey everybody

Hey everybody. I'm back and bringing chapter five to you, now, I want to clear up some things, Sasuke and Kiba will both play a huge part in the story after this. Hinata will also make an appearance, just not a very happy one. I hope the last chapter said something about the scene between Naruto and Ino, I did borrow that from Inu-Yasha, I'll admit that, but it fit quite well, along with the little déjà vu scene I put in. Back to the pairing, um, all I can say is, it won't be long now before things kick off, but I won't divulge what small ideas I have for the main characters (I'm an evil genius…plus a hopeless romantic, I just like a little blood involved), the only thing I'll give away is the ending scene in this chapter sets the next two in motion. Well that's all I have to tell about the story at the moment.

I am almost giddy right now. The poll I set up is doing well, and I have an announcement to make. If there is a tie, which there is at the moment, I will tackle both stories at the same time. Difficult, yes, but it would be almost orgasmic if it worked. Part two of the announcement is that all of the stories that receive votes will be written, hopefully Metal will be finished by August next year and then I'll really put on the boosters. I enjoy writing the story, but with that story there is no reward, but I always finish what I start, besides, the last chapter and epilogue will be magical, and I hope to get at least one teary review from it. (ENOUGH SAID) Well, uh, yeah, good stuff.

I really do apologize for this one being a little late. My only excuse is that, for the past month, my computer has been broken and was getting fixed, so, in its absence, I played checkers with a wall and tried to think of some clever ideas for this chapter. The results, well, you'll be happy.

I'm sorry if you get tired of reading the stupid stuff I put at the beginning of my chapters, it's a shame that I'm so long-winded. Well, I've definitely said enough so here, chapter five, enjoy.

Tsunade sat at her desk looking at them questioningly.

Naruto didn't wait for her to ask anything. He threw the sack down on her desk and opened the top, revealing the head of Kiba, still attached to his body. The bound ninja was awake and looked angry to be tied up and shoved into a sack.

"Care to tell me how a team of five Leaf Anbu came to be sent to kill both Ino and I." He said coldly as he stared at the woman in front of him.

Tsunade gasped.

"What do you mean?" She asked, staring dumbly from Kiba's head to Naruto.

"Exactly what I said." replied Naruto, his voice cold as ice.

"But I did the autopsy, Kiba Inuzuka is dead." she said.

Naruto gave a little chuckle. "Not this one. Going blind in your old age Tsunade?"

Ino waited for Tsunade to stop glaring before she began to speak. "Lady Tsunade, two days ago we were engaged against a team of sound ninja. They were all very powerful and they carried the name of the Sound Five. They were sent to kill us when we escaped from the Sound village. Naruto was about to attack when five Anbu appeared; they told us that they were sent to kill us. Naruto dispatched the Sound Five and then proceeded to do the same to the Anbu, leaving Kiba alive at my request. Upon searching we found that Kiba was carrying papers signed by you, along with some info on both Naruto and I jotted down in a small notebook. We tied him in a bag and returned to the village. My question is, why did you send ninja to kill us? The mission objective was written on the papers, signed by you. I still have them if you want to confirm it."

Naruto turned away from the two women. "Still a loyal dog to Konoha, eh Ino; you make me sick, it's almost unbearable to be near you. You both disgust me, you worthless piles of trash." He grabbed Kiba. "I'll deal with Kiba, I've got a stop before I drop him off at the interrogation office; Ino wouldn't do it on the journey back." He started for the door.

Ino grabbed his arm. "But what about your injuries, you need to go to a hospital. Tsunade can get someone to transport Kiba."

Naruto stood there "Let go of me." he growled, bloodlust radiating from is body. "I will do this myself. I will also forget what happened on the mission, but know this, if it happens again, or if I detect anything harmful to me, I will not hesitate to finish what the Kyuubi started twenty-one years ago, the only difference is I'll be a lot more thorough and you don't have anyone strong enough to stop me." He yanked his hand away from Ino and muttered something to her as he walked out the door.

Ino stared at the door for a moment, then she turned to face Tsunade, looking like she was about to cry. She strode forward and slammed both hands against the desk.

"What the hell happened out there?" Ino asked, her anger surfacing for the first time in days.

Tsunade sighed. "I don't know, I sent that team of Anbu out to help you, Danzo said that Naruto told him..."

"Wait." Ino cut her off. "Naruto didn't send anything to anyone the entire time. There was no way he could have told Danzo that we were in trouble. Danzo is the leader of ROOT right?"

Tsunade nodded. "Danzo said he has been in contact with Naruto for a while now."

Ino scratched her head. "Funny, I've never seen them together, and I live next door to Naruto."

The two women stood there for a moment, and then shrugged, Tsunade leaned forward in her chair.

"So, fill me in, who is the Sound leader?"

Ino prepared to drop a bomb. "The leader of the sound village was confirmed, his identity is none other that Sasuke Uchiha. I'm not sure of he survived the attack Naruto and GamaBunta used to help us escape, but it really was him, Sharingan and all."

"But Naruto killed him." Tsunade said.

Ino sighed and leaned against the wall. "Yeah, but a lot of people Naruto has killed have decided to rise up from the grave and haunt him lately." Tears formed in her eyes. _Naruto, why won't you let anyone help you?_ She thought miserably as she stared out the window in the Hokage's office.

* * *

Naruto made it to his private park quickly, even carrying the sack that contained a very disgruntled shinobi. He dropped the sack in front of his monument, and then proceeded to pull the bound ninja out of the bag. Kiba was struggling as much as possible; to no effect, Naruto laughed as he felt the man's feeble attempt to draw on his chakra.

"It's no use Kiba." Naruto said with a smile. "Those ropes you are bound with, they're made from a plant that eats chakra, ever since I bound you; they have been draining you."

"Then kill me and get it over with!" Kiba growled; flailing around.

Naruto crouched beside him. "Kiba, I'm not going to kill you,. Ino begged me not to, so, if you die, my hands will not be the ones who are sullied. No, I brought you here for information, which I will get, no matter how disfigured your body is afterward."

"I won't tell you anything." Kiba spat in his face.

Naruto sighed. "Yes, you will." He pulled out a kunai and jammed it deep into Kiba's shoulder. "What happened that night?"

"F-fuck!" Kiba grunted. "You fucking stabbed me!! What the hell!"

"That wasn't the question." Naruto said calmly as he 'inserted' another kunai into Kiba's arm. When Kiba didn't say anything, he inserted five more, the last one he decided to shove in near his groin, causing Kiba to scream, when he was done Naruto shoved one into his leg

"Ow! Aww fuck!" Kiba grunted. "Fine, you deserve that much. Hinata was on my team; she was my friend, and she was like a sister to me. You were a friend and comrade, but when I was transferred to Anbu; I had to take orders from my superior officer; that night with Hinata, they set you up. I used a genjutsu on Hinata to make her think I was you, and went in, you walked in right when you were supposed to; they clubbed you, we brought in some fresh ROOT rookie and slaughtered him, then spread my blood all over the place. That night, my whole squad, which had been supposedly sent out on a scouting mission and hadn't returned, and I were switched into the ROOT program. Our names were inscribed on the stone and we disappeared."

"Fine." Naruto said. "Why were you guys targeting me?"

Kiba growled, but answered quickly when another knife was dug into his arm. "Okay, our squad leader had heard that you had killed Sasuke. Maybe he was jealous, I don't know. All I know is that he wanted you dead and even that backfired on him."

"So it did. Who ordered you to kill me?"

"The Hokage…"

"No, on a more personal scale, who runs your operation?"

"Danzo then."

Naruto was silent; then he grabbed Kiba by the collar. "Come on, let's go."

"Where are we going?" Kiba asked, squinting in pain when one of the knives jammed in his arm bumped into a tree.

"We are going to visit your dear mother and sweet sister, we are going to get you reacquainted to a very old friend of yours, and then we are going to the Hokage Tower so you can tell her everything you have just told me." Naruto said in a cheery mood.

"Great." Kiba groaned. "Just great…. Hey Naruto."

"What?"

"Can you pull these knives out of me please?"

"Big baby."

* * *

Tsume was pissed. There was no getting around it; she was fucking murderous. First, her son was killed by one of his best friends; so she swore to hate that person unto her dying day, which she was currently doing. Then, up and out of the blue, that person shows up, carrying a bound and gagged ninja, who turns out to be the son she had been mourning for two years. To top all of that, she learned that her son had been alive and betraying the village every day since his faked death. The best summary for her mood, simple, she was pissed.

"So, all of the raiding parties the Sound have been sending were orchestrated by _you_; that's what you're trying to tell me?" She said, her eyes blazing with enough fury to make even a seasoned Anbu cringe.

Naruto was cringing himself, and he was way beyond a seasoned Anbu.

"Yes." Kiba said, trying to look his mother in the eye. "I also organized the invasion on the sound village. It was I that took the life of the Kazekage's most trusted advisor, Baki."

A plate dropped in the kitchen. Followed by slow footsteps, Kiba's face paled as his sister Hana walked into the room.

"S-sis..." he said softly.

"Little bro..." She said as she sat down beside him. "What's happened to you? First you leave while Akimaru needs you, then you die, then you come back TELLING OUR MOTHER HOW YOU BETRAYED THE VILLAGE WHEN SHE'S BEEN MOURNING YOU FOR TWO YEARS!!" She screamed, hitting Kiba repeatedly over the head with a pan.

"Hey, hey, hey," Naruto said, stepping in between the bound Kiba and her irate sister "He's my prisoner, and I need him working properly when I 'persuade' him to tell the Hokage what he has told you. I can't carry in damaged equipment."

"He. Is. Not. Just. Equipment." She huffed, banging a now dazed Kiba over the head one more time before retreating to the kitchen to make tea, red in the face with a scowl that did not become her.

Naruto grabbed the half conscious Kiba by the collar and shook him till he was awake. Kiba growled as he was tossed roughly onto the floor.

"Hey man, what was that about damaged equipment. Fucking hypocrite." He said.

"Physical damage doesn't matter, I could cut off both your legs and you'd still be good for interrogation." Naruto said with a grin. "But I'm not that mean, besides, you're about to meet a friend you haven't seen for too long."

As he spoke, a huge creature entered the room

* * *

Ino walked down the street with a gloomy expression. She was thinking about what had been said at the Hokage's office earlier. _Maybe I am always in the way. _She thought sadly. _It seems every time I try to help, all I do is hurt someone. _She turned and walked into her apartment to find someone sitting in front of her door. A someone with bright pink hair.

"Sakura?" Ino said questioningly, "Why are you here?"

Sakura looked up. She stared at Ino with a tragic look on her face. "Have you been crying?" she asked.

Ino's hands shot up to her face. Had she been crying, she felt her eyes sting. She fell to her knees and sobbed loudly.

Sakura stared at her friend for a few minutes before moving over and wrapping her in a hug. The two women sat there for almost an hour before Sakura said anything.

"So, are we going inside or will we stay out here and catch something." She said with a radiant smile.

Ino stood up, the tears still flowing. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys. After a minute of fumbling with the lock, she got the door open and she and her guest entered.

As Sakura hurried around to make tea, she took in the appearance of her best friend. She knew that Ino had just returned from an S-class mission, but Ino had only a single scratch, a nick at the base of her neck. _That's going to leave a scar._ Sakura thought, smiling that the tiny little wound was the only souvenir from her latest mission.

The rest of her friend didn't look so good, Ino was pale and shivering. Her face was tear streaked and dirty, her clothes hadn't been washed in days, and neither had Ino.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked "Your mission was a success wasn't it?"

Ino nodded, choking back another sob, she held it back for a moment, but couldn't keep it in check and burst out crying again. She curled on the couch and cried, not caring that Sakura was even in the room, not feeling when Sakura tossed a blanket over her, and not thinking as she cried herself to sleep.

Sakura stood up and went back into the kitchen to finish the tea. She would get her answers when Ino woke up, whether the blond wanted to divulge them or not..

* * *

Danzo's head slammed against the wall. Grunting, he turned around to face his attacker.

"Lady Hokage, my sincerest apologies..."

"Oh shut the fuck up Danzo." Tsunade said, slamming the man into the wall again. "I don't care how you feel at this moment. You fucked up too bad for me to care. What the hell were you thinking, sending a team to kill Naruto and Ino. You should have known Naruto could kill every ninja under my command, and that includes yours as well."

"What ninja my lady?"

Tsunade grabbed Danzo by the throat and kissed him huskily.

"Oh, _those_ ninja." Danzo said with a smile.

Tsunade punched him in the gut. "Don't grin yet, you almost ruined the whole plan, so you are still getting your punishment. Pain first, pleasure later, that's the rule Danzo." She said as she hit him in the face.

Danzo prepared for a fun night.

* * *

Kiba cringed as a low and loud growling filled the air. A shadow covered his face, and then something wet raked across his face as the large white dog licked him.

"Pff, Akimaru? Is that really you?" Kiba said as his old partner licked him again.

Naruto smiled. "Of course it's Akimaru, who do you think I was talking about, Shino? I wouldn't do that. I leave it to you to reveal that you're still alive. Enjoy tonight, I'm letting you spend it with your family, but come tomorrow, I'm dragging your ass to the Hokage tower." Naruto said as he walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

* * *

Ino's dream was horrible, every time she moved one of her friends died, starting with Choji and ending with Naruto. When it was Naruto's turn, she didn't see him die just once, he died again and again until she woke up in cold sweat, screaming.

"Naruto!"

She surveyed the area. She had been sleeping in her couch; she looked over to her right and saw Sakura looking at her.

"I can guess what happened." Sakura said "Naruto said something disturbing to you didn't he."

Ino shook her head, and then relayed the whole story to her, every detail.

Sakura sat and listened; enthralled at the detail Ino described of the deaths of the Sound Five. And she said so.

"That was all easy to get through." Ino said "But when Naruto said it was almost unbearable to be around me…well...I don't want to talk about it."

Sakura stood up and walked to the door. She stood there for several minutes before speaking.

"You love him, don't you?" she said.

Ino put on a false smile. "Guess I really am a blonde, huh, I didn't realize I did until today."

Sakura turned back to her friend. "Then tell him, it may just be a hunch, but I'm guessing he feels the same about you."

Sakura left with a wave and a smile. Leaving Ino to her thoughts for several minutes.

"All right." Ino said after a while. "I'll tell him now.

She got up and headed outside, and walked down the hall to Naruto's room. She knocked on the door, and waited for several minutes. _He's probably at the interrogation office_, she thought, _I'll just wait for him till he gets back._

He didn't come home that night.

* * *

Naruto sat in front of the statue; tears falling from his eyes.

"Haku, where did I go wrong, I sought to protect them all, and now I've hurt one of those dearest to me. Every time I get close I get this pain in my chest; it's on the last seal, I know it. She saved me from myself this last mission, and I saw the hurt in her eyes after I said those things in Tsunade's office, but I know that I still love someone else. I still love Hinata…"

He heard a gasp and looked up. Morning had snuck up on him and a rare beauty was lit in its light; there stood Ino, bathed in the sunlight, a shocked and hurt expression covering her face.

Naruto stood. "Ino…I…"

"Don't say anything Naruto." She said, holding back tears. "I heard enough…good-bye."

And Ino left.

Naruto choked back a sob; he had hurt someone close to him again.

* * *

Ino set to packing. She had made up her mind; she would leave, and leave everything that tied her to Naruto here. She took the pain of losing a loved one once, she would deal with this as if Naruto had died; in fact, to her he had died the night they placed the seal upon him. She packed everything up and got ready to leave. She was just finishing when someone knocked on the door.

She walked to the door and opened it to see Naruto standing there.

"What do you want." She asked.

"I want to talk."

"I've heard enough already." She said as she slammed the door in his face. Naruto sighed and walked away.

* * *

Ino slumped down by the door. Who was she kidding, she could leave here, but Naruto wasn't going to leave her thoughts, he would always be with her.

She got up to unpack, she would try to live with the fact that she was second best, maybe one day he would change his mind. Time flew by and night fell slowly upon Konoha.

* * *

Naruto stood in the Hyuga gardens staring into Hinata's room, where the woman was sleeping peacefully. Soon, things would be right again.

A quiet breeze passed and he was gone; a shadow fading in and out of the trees.

The woman's eyes snapped open and she sat up, staring out into the distance. No one was there.

* * *

Ino called Sakura and asked if she could come over, Ino didn't want to be alone when she heard Naruto enter his apartment. Sakura came over immediately and sat with her friend all night.

Naruto came home in the early hours of the morning.

* * *

Naruto sat at Ichiraku's and enjoyed a large bowl of ramen, contemplating the last couple nights. He had managed to hurt Ino twice, threaten the Hokage, and get a whole organization pissed at him. The last one he didn't care about, Danzo and his ROOT were going to be dust caught in a wind when he was finished.

Naruto was enjoying his imagination's wild fantasies on how to kill a whole group of ninja when he heard a grunt beside him. He looked up to see Jiraiya staring at him thoughtfully.

"I suppose you have somehow been given the details of these last few days?" Naruto asked, setting down his empty bowl.

Jiraiya grunted again, and then silence fell over the two men. Finally Jiraiya spoke.

"Don't kill ROOT, I'm digging up dirt on them at the moment, considering that they are the only threat left, I want to know what is really going on with them."

Naruto stared at his bowl. "Fine; if it is your wish, I will not destroy them yet, but I will eventually."

Jiraiya stood "Kiba informed me of everything, and then allowed me to take him to Tsunade for questioning. We now have enough evidence, but we don't have enough support in the council to investigate. ROOT will have to fall by your hand, just wait a while."

"Yes master." Naruto replied; and without another word Jiraiya walked away. Naruto got up and headed home.

He was halfway there when two figures jumped from a bush, swords drawn.

Naruto pulled out his machete and quickly removed the head of the ninja closest to him, then whipped around and gave the same treatment to his partner.

Naruto cleaned off his blade and sheathed it; then continued to walk home, leaving the corpses on the road.

* * *

Ino awoke to the sound of a door being shut. She quickly got up and stepped outside. She walked over to Naruto's door and knocked. Naruto opened the door a crack.

"Ino, now is not a good time." He said quietly.

"I don't care anymore." Ino replied. "Naruto, I have something to say, and I am going to say it, I think…I think I've fallen for you, you are the only person I have felt safe around, when I smile around you, it's real, not the fake everyone else sees, you are the only person besides Choji who has ever done that, and I want it to last, Naruto I love you."

Several second passed; then Naruto quietly spoke.

"Goodnight Ino." He said as he shut his door.

Ino walked back into her apartment; and cried herself to sleep.

"Naruto" she sobbed as she drifted into sleep.

Yay!! I have popped out another work of art. This part will be split into three chapters to make it easier to work with. I'm sorry if I made you wait a little too long on it, but as I said earlier, my computer was fucked up, so I got the shaft there. I'm hoping the next chapter will be out sooner; look for it late October or early November. I know I could have made this one better, but I was suffering writer's block for everything but a couple of scenes. So my full apologies to everyone that were kept waiting. and I also apologize on the shortness of the chapter; But writer's block kicked my ass this time around, i'll beat that evil monster next time.

Um, I do have one more thing to say. If you think I could have done a better job, tell me, leave it in a review or PM me, I'm okay with that, But don't be shy about pointing out my faults, when you do, it just makes me try harder to give you guys/gals a better chapter or story. It makes me a better writer so I can provide a better story, so please review. Thank you.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Hey, well, I'm happy to give you chapter six, fresh from my sick, twisted little mind. You know, I couldn't really get into the last scene of chapter five, I mean, to me it was a bit of a let down, it seemed like a super idea, but when I reread it after I posted it, I just was disappointed in myself. So my new motto is "I shall do better!" until I believe I produce a scene worthy of being read on Fanfiction. If you liked the last scene of chapter five, more power to you, really, I just believe I could have done better, and so I will. Okay, a couple scenes in this chapter should give everyone quite a rush, no more bad tearjerkers in this chapter, so don't worry about having to read a crappy, badly planned love scene, the next one will be planned from the moment it pops into my head. Also, I decide that instead of a three chapter part, this one will be a two chapter; although that shortens this story a little bit, it makes it easier to read, since there won't be too much extra crap floating about.

The poll is still chugging along, I urge everyone to check it out, I mean, it's not going to hurt you, but if you don't want to you don't have to. I just wish there was a little more votes, there's a tie right now and I don't think I would be able to write both stories along with writing this and Metal.

But enough bullcrap, here is chapter six.

Naruto sat on the opposite side of the door, clutching his chest. When Ino had spoken, something had rushed through him and tripped the seal, now it was burning painfully on his chest, searing the flesh around it. Naruto gasped as the seal went cold; rendering him unconscious.

Naruto woke up an hour later. He got up shakily and went to take a shower before retiring thoughtfully to his bed. The seal had reacted to Ino's words, he knew that; but for it to have reacted in such a way the bond between them must be close, but he pushed those thoughts aside as he fell asleep, the last thought in his mind was the memory of those azure eyes as she told him she loved him.

* * *

Ino woke with a feeling of despair. She had told him last night, it had took all her courage to say those three words and he had hurt her, all he had had to do was shut the door.

But didn't she deserve it? Hadn't she slammed the door in his face that morning? To her, only one thing was clear. She couldn't live here anymore, not loving him like she did.

She got up and took a long bath. Then got dressed and prepared to head out to a café down the street for breakfast. She opened her door.

* * *

Both she and Naruto opened their door at the same time. There was an awkward silence as the two stared at each other.

"Where you headed?" Naruto asked, seeming like he was determined to say something to her.

She walked past him. "I'm on my way to the café."

"I'll go with you"

"Why?"

"Because we need to talk."

"No we don't."

Naruto touched her gently on the shoulder. "Yes we do."

"Naruto, you have nothing to say to me, it's pretty clear my feelings for you are one-sided."

"Only according to you." He said.

Ino stopped walking. "W-what do you mean?"

"There is something there Ino, I don't know what it is yet, but you are the only person who has ever been able to stop me when I've been enraged by the sight of blood. But we can't test it yet. I have to make amends with Hinata, and to be around me is dangerous. I didn't want to speak with you last night because just before I came home, I was attacked by two ninja, if you are seen too close to me, you might get involved, right now; this is between me and Jiraiya. But once everything is settled, I will give us a chance, I like being around you, and I don't want that to stop."

"I don't believe you."

"Ino don't be like that, I'm serious."

"You really mean it?"

"Yes, but it would be a good idea for you to move out for a while; that way you are in even less danger. I'll disguise this as renovation all right?"

"Where am I going to stay?" Ino asked.

"Ask your parents; it'll only be a few weeks, a month at most."

"My dad and I aren't talking."

"Funny, 'cause I talked to him before he was assigned the mission and he requested that you go in his place. He felt that you were the better choice, he also told me to tell you that he is sorry, he just didn't like you getting engaged behind his back."

"Oh, an apology, that's rich coming from him."

"I think you should hear him out."

"Fine. I will; good-bye."

Ino started walking toward the café again, she looked back, but Naruto had already disappeared.

* * *

Naruto took off to talk with the woman he should have talked with directly after she came back. He was heading straight for the Hyuga mansion when he ran into the person he least expected to be out. He rounded a corner and came face to face with Hinata.

Hinata stared at his face, then went as white as a ghost; she dropped the plants and turned to run.

"Hinata, wait…" Naruto said shakily. He was surprised to find her out of the view of another Hyuga, and he didn't want to scare her away; this might be his only chance to fix things.

Hinata turned to look at him; tears shining in her eyes. "Y-yo-you-you're d-de-de-dead. I w-wa-wa watched y-you d-d-die." She said, stuttering worse than she had ever before.

"Hinata, I'm not dead; I'm perfectly fine, see." Naruto said, walking closer to her. "It was a trick that Kiba played on us, I'm not dead, I'm all right."

"N-n-no, th-th-this ha-has t-t-t-to b-b-be a dr-dre-dream." She said, backing away again. "Y-you d-don't even l-look like Naruto. I-I'm s-se-seeing things again."

Naruto sighed and stepped forward and quickly embraced her; she gasped, then snuggled herself deep into the hug.

"I used to hug you like this as I said goodnight after a date, remember."

"I-I re-remember." She said contentedly.

They sat there and hugged for several minutes before Hinata spoke again.

"I guess you came here for a reason?" she asked slowly.

"I came here to tell you something." Naruto said, noticing her stutter disappear.

"Is it about our engagement?" she asked.

"No, you cancelled it two years ago." He replied.

Hinata stepped back; breaking out of Naruto's embrace. "N-no. I c-couldn't have." She said, her stutter returning. "W-what do you mean?"

"Hinata, after our last mission, you cancelled our engagement, moved out of the house and back in with your clan. After a little trick played on us by some bad people, you were sent away for two full years. I'm sorry Hinata, but I have had two years to argue with myself on what could have been, but I moved on, partly because I believed you didn't want me." He paused for a second; thinking "It wasn't till recently that I realized something. As much as I believed I loved you, all it really was, was infatuation. I can admit now that I never truly loved you because I have found another who loves me as much, if not more, than you did, but you broke my heart first Hinata, and I've had two years to mull over that. All I want you to know is that I still want to be friends."

Hinata collapsed, crying. When Naruto leaned over to help her, she slapped his hand away, mumbled something and ran into the compound.

Naruto stared the way she had gone, thinking over those words.

"If I can't have you, no one will."

* * *

Ino sat in the café with a radiant smile on her face. Her friends sat across from her, looking at her quizzically.

"What did you want to talk to us about?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, why'd you drag us out here this early?" Anko said with a yawn.

"Well…" Ino started, "I took Sakura's advice and told Naruto how I felt. At first I thought he turned me down and I felt horrible."

"So that's why you called us here right?" Tenten asked.

"No, Naruto is doing some renovations on the apartment building, so I need a place to stay for a month."

"So he turned you down, and you still want to be near him?" Sakura asked. "Who are you and what have you done with Ino?"

"No, no; he didn't turn me down. He just can't be in a relationship at the moment, he's going to give it a chance once he fixes all of the problems he has right now. So, can I bunk with one of you?"

"Can't over at my place, no room." Tenten said.

"Shino is very adamant about me letting someone live with us." Sakura said sadly.

"Yay! Little Ino can bunk with me, and we can have fun! Pillow fights, wrestling matches, then sex when I win!"

"FOR THE LAST TIME ANKO…..you know what, fuck it, I'm going to talk with my parents on this one guys"

* * *

Naruto had been searching for someone since he had spoken with Hinata, and he found said person staring into the women's bath with a pair of binoculars. He tapped the man's shoulder.

"Master Jiraiya, it's just me, Naruto." He said as Jiraiya jumped and spun around. "When Jiraiya had calmed down Naruto asked "Do you have any more info for me?"

Jiraiya seemed sad as he answered, "Yeah, ROOT is planning a takeover of Konoha tonight, so we strike them in a few hours."

"How about now."

"We need to scope out their security."

"Or we could just do it my way, bust in killing like mad, not caring how badly injured I get doing so."

"My way is so much safer."

"True; but mine is so much faster."

"Fine."

"Good; let's go."

Both ninja disappeared in a swirl of leaves, heading for a small building downtown where they knew the ROOT headquarters existed. Both not knowing how dangerous the night was going to be.

* * *

Ino knocked on her parent's front door. Her mother answered with a small smile. She ushered her daughter into the living room, and was met by her father. Ino's mom quickly disappeared into the kitchen, leaving the two completely alone.

Inoichi ground his teeth together for a few minutes, as if trying to say something but couldn't find the words. Finally, he spoke.

"Honey, I'm sor…"

"It's all right Daddy."

"No…it's not; I was an ass, I was more than that, I'm a horrible excuse for a man and a worse excuse of a father!" he shouted, tears forming in his eyes. "Is there any way you can forgive me?"

"Daddy, I forgive you, I'm not mad about it anymore all right."

Inoichi ran over and hugged his daughter; they stood there embracing for almost ten minutes before Ino spoke.

"Hey Daddy; can I stay here for a while?"

"Sure; stay as long as you like sweetheart."

* * *

Naruto and Jiraiya burst through the door amongst a crowd of ninja, each being blown apart by a rasengan. They had encountered an ambush on the way and the party had escalated from there, the ambushers going from a group of six to almost fifty in about ten street blocks. Needless to say, the little fiasco caught a lot of attention.

Naruto pinned a man to the wall with one hand and drove the rasengan into his face, smashing it apart, scattering bits of bone and brain matter all over his front, his face was soaked in blood and brain as he turned and drove the little ball of swirling energy into the back of another unsuspecting ninja. Jiraiya was doing the same a few feet away. Both were tearing the enemy apart when two voices spoke out over the fighting.

"Very good you two."

"Yes; an excellent display of power."

Naruto and Jiraiya stopped fighting; as did the ninja surrounding them. All of them looked up to see Tsunade and Danzo standing side by side.

Jiraiya didn't seem too surprised to find them here. "So I guess the rumors were true Tsunade, you really have handed over the village to Danzo."

Tsunade laughed. "Do you really think I'd give Konoha away, no Danzo and I are just sharing it, isn't that right my love?" She said, looking toward Danzo.

Danzo wrapped his arm around her, a knife flashing in his hand, and with a flick of his wrist he slit her throat. "No."

Tsunade grabbed her throat and started to heal it when Danzo stabbed her in the chest.

"W-why?" Tsunade gurgled as she lay dying.

"I found a new tool." Danzo replied. "One more beautiful and more _valuable _than you, my dear, and I believe now is the time to introduce her, come in, my love."

And in walked Hinata, a cold look on her face.

* * *

Ino was cooking dinner when she felt something in the pit of her stomach. Like an ache that wouldn't go away. She suddenly felt nauseous. She excused herself and sat down in her old room, she closed her eyes, trying to settle her stomach when an image flitted through her mind.

_Naruto was surrounded by enemies; the man known as Danzo standing on a balcony above. Naruto was covered in gore, just like the man standing beside him; whom she recognized as the Toad Sanin Jiraiya; both looked at the woman who had just entered with a confused gaze. The woman gave an evil laugh and threw a kunai at Naruto, who made no move to dodge. It hit him in the shoulder; he did not flinch as he ripped it out, throwing it on the ground._

"_You would turn her against me! How did she fall for the twisted lies sung by your forked tongue?"_

_Danzo laughed. "I did no such thing. She came to me of her own free will."_

_Ino got a glimpse of the woman's face as she spoke and she immediately recognized her. _

_It was Hinata, and the words she spoke angered Ino more than any she had ever heard._

"_If I cannot have you" Hinata said "no one will have you, and for that to be possible, I must kill you."_

Ino snapped back out of her daze, anger radiating off of her.

"That bitch." She said, as she jumped out of her window. "That bitch is going to die."

* * *

Another kunai shot Naruto's way, this time aimed at his throat. He caught it with a flick of his wrist and then dropped it on the ground in front of him. He repeated this five more times before he spoke.

"So, Danzo, you've killed the Hokage and taken over Konoha, big deal, you're so old, if I was you I'd be expecting to keel over soon, not much of a victory once you're dead, huh."

"That's where you're wrong, Lord Orochimaru decided to place under my care several scrolls, and one is the scroll for the immortality jutsu." Danzo said with a smile. "I am now able to move from body to body, old age can't harm me, I'm invincible."

"Not invincible." Naruto said with a frown, "I killed Orochimaru remember, killing you will be even easier."

"Not with the knowledge I now hold. I am the only living person with access to both Orochimaru's and the Third's research, I hold over a thousand jutsus and I can use every single one of them." Danzo said with a grin, he then turned to Hinata. "Bring in the prisoner my love." He said in a soft voice.

Hinata walked out of the room and returned with a man being escorted by five ninja. Naruto looked from the man to Danzo several times; then asked a question.

"Who the fuck is that?" Naruto said acidly.

"This is Takuma Ryoji." Danzo said, walking over to the man. "You see, Tsunade didn't want you to take the Hokage's seat, she never did, so a couple years ago, she assembled a group of skilled jonin and chunin to take under her wing, Takuma was her star pupil, as well as her chosen successor. The little bastard heard me mention a part of my plan to kill you to the five Anbu I sent after you, so I took him hostage, and now, as it states in her will, he will become Hokage."

Danzo's hands flew rapidly as he made several hand signs. He lingered over the last one before he collapsed dead, but something strange had happened, Takuma's face had froze in fear just a second earlier, but now he had a huge grin on his face. He walked over to Hinata and kissed her.

He broke the kiss and turned to Naruto. "I have taken Takuma's body, his name, and his title. I am now the Hokage of Konohagakure!" he kissed Hinata again, then said, "I'll let you finish him off my love, just don't get any blood on your beautiful face." And he turned to the door, where he encountered the rest of Naruto's friends.

"What the hell!" Anko said angrily.

"That's fucking gross!" came Ten ten's voice.

"Most unyouthful!" Lee shouted

"You said it Lee." replied Guy.

"Lady Tsunade!" came Sakura's cry. Shino stood by her side, silent as usual as she wept on his shoulder. Kiba glared at Takuma with intense hatred. His mother and sister were growling at Takuma along with all of their dogs.

"Sister Hinata." Neji said quietly.

"I should've known" Shikamaru said from the back.

Kurenai just huffed.

By far, the loudest thing came from Ino, "GET AWAY FROM MY NARUTO, YOU BITCH!!" she screamed, charging at Hinata, who had been advancing on Naruto while he watched his friends make their entrance.

Ino and Hinata collided full force; Ino's fist came soaring out of nowhere and connected with the side of Hinata's face, sending the woman across the room.

Hinata stood and wiped away a trickle of blood off the corner of her mouth. "So it's you. Maybe if I just kill you he'll come back."

Hinata lunged at Ino, slipping into her Gentle Fist stance fluidly, and without hesitation, launched a devastating attack on Ino. Ino put her arms up in defense, trying to stop Hinata from hitting any fatal areas. She gasped in pain; but held fast against Hinata's taijutsu.

"Ino! Get back! Hinata is a lot tougher than she was when we were kids! She's mastered her family's taijutsu; you can't take that kind of attack!" Naruto said, charging in and tackling Hinata; Hinata's head impacted with the ground and the girl slumped, unconscious.

Takuma's eyes filled with rage. "You dare harm my woman, my beloved tool? You will die for this!" He clapped his hands and twenty more ninja, all jonin rank, entered the room. "These people killed Lady Tsunade! Destroy them, take no prisoners!"

Naruto growled, then picked up Ino, who seemed to have lost all movement in her limbs and jumped for the nearest exit, shouting. "If you want to live, I'd run!!"

His friends quickly scrambled for the exits, moving in an unstoppable mass as they blew their way through the group of ninja and out into the streets.

* * *

Naruto plowed through a ninja with his Rasengan. holding Ino on his back, he had tried to escape through the back alleys unnoticed, but the word that he and the others had killed Tsunade spread fast, and before he had gone ten blocks, he was surrounded by almost a dozen ninja in full battle gear, most happy that they had a shot at the 'Demon' of the Leaf village. Naruto had no choice then, he had to fight, and fight he did.

That was about three minutes ago, and he was now fighting his way through a set of emergency tunnels nearby. He had hoped to get some advantage over his enemies by forcing them to go one on one, but so far all that did was increase the chance that more ninja would hear the fighting and join their companions down here.

Naruto rammed the Rasengan into another ninja's stomach, sending the man crashing into a wall. He took the opportunity to escape by tacking a couple paper bombs on the wall and ran. He got about ten meters before an explosion collapsed the wall behind him.

He kept on running, oblivious to the screams of injured ninja behind him.

* * *

Sakura and Shino had left the main group as soon as they made it out the doors. Shino used his insects to create an impenetrable cocoon around the two of them as they shot through the city, making their way for the gates. They were in sight when they started closing. Shino moved faster, but Sakura soon got tired and collapsed.

Shino stopped and knelt beside her. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be putting you under so much stress."

Sakura looked up at him. "It's okay; go on, I'll be fine here."

Shino let out a small laugh. "No, if II left you here, they'd kill you in a heartbeat." He bent down and kissed her. "I'm not losing you."

Shino picked her up and started running again. The gates were almost closed, so he sent his bugs to stop them, forgetting that they had been the only protection the two of them had. A rain of Kunai came from behind them; Shino felt several hit him but kept on running. He would be fine; his wife was the best medic in Konoha. He made it through the gates and ordered his bugs to block any enemies from following.

The ninja of Konoha made it through the cloud of beetles, but lost the trail from there as the bugs scattered in all directions.

* * *

Kiba, Hana and Tsume were running through a different part of the city; they were heading up the stone faces. Guy and Lee were tagging along, busting heads as they went. They made it to the top and kept on running right to the edge of the plateau, then off of it, ninja in hot pursuit.

Lee opened the gates and stayed behind for a little while, using the massive power and speed of the Hidden Lotus to stop any pursuing ninja, after a while he tired and deactivated the gates, and Guy took a turn doing the same thing, they kept that up until no ninja dared to follow the group, they then made a beeline around the village and headed South.

* * *

Anko had trailed Naruto from the beginning, but she lost him in the tunnel's collapse, and now she stood surrounded by her fellow Leaf ninja.

"Anko Mitarashi, for contributing in the murder of the Fifth Hokage, we the ninja of Konoha sentence you to death. Do you have anything to say?" One of the ninja said, stepping forward.

Anko gave one of her trademark grins. "Oh yeah, I have something that you all are gonna like." She raised her arms and snakes shot in every direction, impaling the ninja surrounding her.

"Fools." She muttered as she took off after her friends.

* * *

Naruto slipped out of a back entrance in the wall. He sat Ino down and looked over her arms and legs.

"I took a beating and I know it Naruto, don't worry, I'll be fine in a few hours." She said weakly.

"Ino…" Naruto started, trying to find the words to match what he was thinking. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a kiss. Ino gasped; then kissed back, enjoying the touch of his lips on hers. He broke the kiss. "Don't ever put yourself in danger like that again, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you Ino. When you and Hinata started to fight, I, I just couldn't stand the thought of watching you die, so from now on, let me protect you, you don't have to fight, and if I have you to fight for, I'll never lose."

"Naruto, I…I can't let you do that." Ino said quietly. "I'm a ninja, I will fight, and next time, I won't lose, because I too have something to fight for now."

"All right, break up this mushy mushy bullshit, we got to get moving or we'll be surrounded by ninja." A voice said from above, they looked up in a tree to see Anko sitting on one of the branches, smiling.

Naruto picked up Ino and stood. "You're right, let's go, "

Anko waited for Naruto to jump up on the branch before she spoke. "Um, if I might ask, where are we going?"

Naruto took the lead jumping from branch to branch. "The others will head to Suna for refuge, Gaara will not hold anything against them and will give them shelter; Jiraiya will be waiting for us there."

"Yeah, I got to ask. Where did that bastard go?"

"He switched himself with a shadow clone as we went in and watched from above, there was a tapping noise the whole entire time we were there, that was Jiraiya tapping out a signal to me and the others. He has already started on the way to Suna. That's where he told the others to go; I bet he'll arrive just before Tenten and Kurenai."

"What do you mean?"

"That wasn't them we saw at ROOT HQ, those were clones sent in their place, Tenten and Kurenai were being cautious, so they didn't come themselves." Naruto replied.

Anko grinned "Those two never like to have fun do they?"

Naruto grinned back "Nope, apparently not." Then as an afterthought "Damn, I didn't get any candy this time around."

"Naruto!..." Ino warned. Anko laughed.

And the trees zoomed by as they made their way to Suna.

* * *

Ahh, that was a good chapter, or at least I thought it was, even if it is a little shorter than I wanted it to be. I must apologize; I had to take out the first idea for the Naruto and Hinata confrontation. If I had added it, the chapter would have to have been completely redone and then I wouldn't have a clue how it would turn out, sorry. Well no more on scenes, expect the next one out before Thanksgiving. Again I do ask everyone to visit my profile and look at the poll I have up at the moment, there really isn't a rush, but it does end New Years Eve. But again you don't have to, I'm just begging you to, along with begging you to review, please tell me things, if I could have done better, tell me so, if you think my story sucks, tell me so, I like criticism, I feed off of it. Well enough of me being an ass, I'll see all of you before Thanksgiving, bye-bye now.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Yeah, the last chap was awesome, a little short but it did what I wanted it to, sucked the way I made Tsunade die didn't it, but on to more important matters. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! You know, when I said before Thanksgiving, I meant about a week before, not a couple days, but who cares, there's a brand new chapter out and I know you're all itching to read it.

On the subject of my poll, which Naruto story should I write next, well, it's still going slow, I urge all of you to check it out, there are some good ideas on there, yet hardly anybody has voted. There is still a fucking tie, and it's still slugging along…Damn.

I'm going to work my ass off, but I hope to have chapter 9 out by either Christmas or New Year's, look for it then.

Time for the show.

* * *

Naruto slammed his fist against the wall.

"What do you mean Kiba and the other's haven't arrived yet?!" He shouted at the lookout that came to inform him.

"I'm s-sorry sir, but no new Leaf ninja have made it here yet, we'll keep on the lookout for five ninja and several dogs sir." The lookout said with a bow.

"Don't even bother, you won't do it right anyway. I guess I'll have to do it, as usual."

Just then Gaara strode into the room. "Are you implying something about my ninja Naruto?" He asked coldly.

Naruto sighed "No Gaara, it's not your ninja." He said "it's all of this."

Gaara stepped to his left, standing beside him they stared into the wide expanse of desert that surrounded Suna.

"Hey Gaara, I remember there used to be a time where you thought killing Sasuke and I would prove your existence." Naruto said to his friend with a grin.

"A long time ago." Gaara replied. "But as I have found out over the years, those who are your enemy one day can be your allies the next. My village has been weakened, if what you say is true, we will need all the help we can get to remove Danzo. I have sent emissaries to every Hidden village not allied with the Leaf."

"So, where are you going with this?"

"I sent one to the Sound village."

Naruto doubled up his fist and punched Gaara in the face. "All that will do is give Konoha another ally, and the most dangerous threat to us as well."

Gaara turned back to Naruto as if nothing happened. "Naruto, I understand your hatred, Baki is dead because of the Sound. But I used to be somewhat like Sasuke, I know he would rather try to destroy the Leaf village than ally himself with it, he has projected all of his misfortunes as a result of that village, there is a good chance he'll join us."

"I will not fight alongside him, he has tried to kill me too many times, he was allied with Danzo, and let's not forget to mention he enjoys betraying any cause he fights for." Naruto said coldly.

Gaara stood to leave "It's my decision Naruto, I made the choice, my path will not waver, it has been three weeks, I will prepare a funeral for the five ninja that had accompanied you."

"They aren't dead."

"Naruto."

"Give them two more days Gaara, I know they'll make it."

"…Fine, I shall give them two more days, but after the two day deadline, I will close the gates of Suna to Leaf ninja until I see fit to open them."

Naruto bowed and Gaara left. He went back to the window and stared out into the expanse of sand and waited for his friends to appear on the horizon.

* * *

Ino and the other women were lying in a nicely air conditioned room; enjoying every puff of cold air they could get. Temari had joined them and jokes and laughter soon filled the room. Ino did not partake; she was still working over what Naruto had said as they left the village.

"_Ino…" Naruto started, trying to find the words to match what he was thinking. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a kiss. Ino gasped; then kissed back, enjoying the touch of his lips on hers. He broke the kiss. "Don't ever put yourself in danger like that again, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you Ino. When you and Hinata started to fight, I, I just couldn't stand the thought of watching you die, so from now on, let me protect you, you don't have to fight, and if I have you to fight for, I'll never lose."_

Ino was shook out of her daydream when Sakura, who had been sitting beside her, asked her what was wrong; Ino smiled and joined the conversation, but in her mind she wanted to be somewhere alone, somewhere alone with Naruto.

* * *

A full day passed and Naruto had not moved. He stared solemnly into the desert, as if hoping for just a glimpse of his friends running along at high speed. He was hoping, hoping that they would make it in time, hoping was all he could do.

The ninja from Konoha were kept comfortable through their stay, they were given excellent rooms, the best food and drink, access to any building in the city, but all they really wanted was to see was their friends who hadn't made it yet.

Ino had finally got her chance; she and Naruto were standing on the balcony in the fading light of the first day. Gaara had come by earlier and informed him that he would close the gates at midnight the next day, then the two were left blissfully alone.

"Naruto"

"Yes Ino"

"Don't be worried, they'll make it."

Naruto was silent for a while, then he said, "Thank you Ino, it means a lot to know you have my back."

Naruto, you said something to me the other day, I just want to tell you, never, ever do that, if you fight for me, I couldn't live with myself, and I couldn't live like that. It would tear away at my soul, and then I don't know how I'd feel about you, you stopped me from dying in a way you know. I would've died without you, you helped me get back on my feet, and I can only think of one way to repay you." She leaned up and kissed him.

"Ino…I…"

"Shh." She said, "The only way I can repay you is to be by your side, not watching from the sidelines. Naruto I want to be _with_ you, not behind you."

Naruto grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.

"I know" he said, "But if you were to get hurt I could never forgive myself, Ino, I have regained more of me with you than I have ever had, it is I who is in debt to you, not the other way around, you saved me."

"Naruto."

"Ino."

They kissed again, letting the setting sun bathe them in golden light.

* * *

Kiba dodged a hail of shuriken, bounding off to his left was Akimaru and Kuromaru, the older carrying an injured Tsume on his back. Hana and Guy were fighting close quarters with a group of Leaf Anbu and Lee, being overly confident, took a whole squad to himself. But after several days of non-stop fighting, all five of them were tired.

Kiba fell and was immediately surrounded by enemies. Lee seen his friend in danger and jumped to his aid, fighting off all he could.

"There's just too many!" Lee shouted as the Anbu surrounded him, he looked at Guy and muttered, "I'm sorry sensei."

Guy heard him and turned to watch his favorite pupil get skewered by seven Anbu swords.

Kiba backed out of the throng, and Akimaru protected him as he got to his feet, muttering under his breath. "OH god, oh god, oh god." He stumbled over to where the others were.

"NO!!!" Guy shouted as he lunged into the group of ninja, gates open, ripping apart anyone who got in his way. Guy was stopped when a sword sprouted from his chest. He turned to his friends.

"Run…" he said pulling out a wad of paper bombs. The ninja took off at high speed, their minds registering the explosion behind them.

And they ran, not even noticing in their sorrow the day turn to night, nor the forest give way to desert. They just kept running.

* * *

Naruto and Ino were still standing on the balcony overlooking the desert. Naruto as there to wait and watch, and Ino was because she couldn't leave Naruto's side.

Naruto had been staring intently in the direction of Konoha when he notices several blurs on the horizon.

"It's them." Naruto said as he pointed them out "It has to be them."

"Naruto I see dogs, you're right! It's them! It's them!" Ino replied, jumping up and down.

The two alerted the guards, then their friends, including the Kazekage, and then headed down to the gate to meet the new arrivals.

* * *

Kiba, Hana, and Tsume made it to the gate, their furry friends in tow, to find all of their human ones waiting for them, Naruto took a quick look at them, as if counting, then asked.

"So, when do Lee and Guy arrive?"

Kiba stepped forward, head hung low.

"Naruto, Lee and Guy didn't make it, Lee died protecting me and Guy followed him... I'm, I don't know what else to say, it was my fault." He said, holding back tears.

Naruto put his hand on Kiba's shoulder. "It's no one's fault Kiba, they did what they wanted to do, they died with honor, they would want us to move on, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but exhibit our youthfulness tenfold for them." He said.

Kiba gave a slight smile. "All right, I will, but if you ever use that word again, it'll be you we grieve for."

Naruto smiled, but his eyes held a deep sadness, but in a flash it was gone and the slate grey eyes turned to the ex-Leaf ninja surrounding him.

"We have been run from our village, which has been taken over, our friends have been destroyed at the hands of our foe. The Leaf village has lost a great battle today. But we will rebuild, as of now we are not Leaf ninja anymore, we are the revolution, the sages of peace, we will fight to bring back the glorious prosperity of Konoha. At this moment, our friend and ally, the Kazekage himself, has sent messages to several hidden villages to help us, we are not alone!" he shouted.

All of the leaf ninja untied their headbands and threw them on the ground. Ino stepped forward.

"I left my family, with whom I had just made peace with, because I believe in a true form of government in Konoha, now that Danzo has taken the title of Hokage, there will be no end to the horrors he can and will commit."

All of the ninja there scowled, several cracking their knuckles; then a very pregnant Sakura stepped forward.

"I have taken my unborn child away from the man who would enslave him and train him to kill from the time he could walk, and I watched as my teacher of old, the last Hokage, was murdered by someone she loved. I will not allow it to stand as such."

The ninja openly mourned the loss they all suffered.

Naruto stepped forward again. "Does anyone have anything else to add?" when no one answered he shouted "Tonight, we shall hold a feast and celebrate the lives of two of the most splendid ninja in the Five Nations, and tomorrow, we begin training for victory!"

The ninja cheered; then dispersed all over the city in preparation. All in charge of getting certain supplies for a party Suna hadn't seen in years.

* * *

Naruto stood on the same balcony he had stood at not but two hours before, staring down into the desert with a solemn glare. Ino walked up beside him.

"Naruto? What's wrong?" she asked as she leaned on his shoulder.

He sighed, "I just can't believe Lee and Guy would go down. I've never heard anything on Anbu being that good; they killed the two most powerful ninja I know, they were probably ROOT Anbu, Danzo will pay for that with his life." He turned and kissed Ino lightly. "Ino, you said you wanted to fight, you and I shall train, let the others feast and be merry; their time to fight will come too soon."

"Yes, I want to fight by your side, but right now they need us, think of it, you are now the commander of a set of troops, boost their morale, get them riled up, then make them ready for what is probably the most historic Coup de tat in the Five Nations." Ino said, pulling him back into the building.

* * *

The feast was gigantic. Four large pigs had been bought and roasted as the main dish while hundreds of other dishes were set around them, including birds of all sizes, fresh greens, which was very rare in Suna, and other items to sample from.

Naruto sat at the head of the table, with Ino on his right side. Before anyone dug in Naruto stood.

"This feast is to honor the lives of two ninja, Might Guy and his pupil Rock Lee. But it also serves another purpose, in their memory; this feast is to begin our campaign to bring Danzo and all others like him down. I hate Danzo with every fiber in my body, and will continue hating him long past my death. But he will be dust by then, because those who sit with me here will stop him, all of us, for all we've lost, now, let's eat before it gets cold!" He spoke, laughing with the others as they dug into the mountains of food before them.

Naruto was smiling the whole time, but afterward he walked alone to his room. He entered and threw his coat on the couch, laying down on it. He had just fallen asleep when a knock woke him; he grumbled and got up, heading for the door. When he opened it, he was met with the sight of Gaara followed by Ino.

"What is it you guys."

Gaara turned and jumped when he seen Ino. He turned back to Naruto and said, "Whatever she's here for count me out of it, I'm just here to inform you that three emissaries will arrive either tomorrow or the day after, one from Mist, one from Stone, and then someone wants to meet you personally, so he decided to come himself."

"Let me guess, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"You hit the nail on the head." Gaara replied.

Gaara tuned and left, not uttering another word. Naruto turned to Ino and beckoned her to come in. Ino walked through the door and stood in the middle of the living room for a moment.

"Ino?" Naruto asked, touching her on the shoulder

Ino turned and caught Naruto off guard, she threw herself at him and the two embraced, Ino reaching on tiptoes to pull Naruto into a kiss.

They were motionless for a moment, before Naruto broke the kiss. He turned away from Ino and walked toward the kitchen.

Ino stood there for a moment before following. She entered to see him sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know what I'm doing any more." Naruto said, more to himself than to her. "They expect me to lead them to victory and become a master of politics, I hate politics. I just don't know what to do."

"You know, I once knew a guy named Naruto Uzumaki." Ino said. "When he and I were growing up, he never knew what he was doing, he'd rush in blindly and hope for the best, I never once seen him worried over anything, unless it had something to do with his crush, so why do I see him worried now."

Naruto gave a weak smile. "Nice try Ino, but right now I'm not sure anything will help us, Konoha is a fortress, and it being so means we would need and army, not ten or twenty ninja from two or three villages."

"You are forgetting the toads, and all the other pretty little summons we'll have, they break through the wall, we follow." Said Jiraiya from the door to the kitchen.

"Danzo would have thought of that." Naruto replied.

"Yes, and he would have passed over that plan because it's a repetition of the Sound/Sand invasion. He won't expect us to do what someone else has already done. And even if he expects it, it'll work, I don't think anyone would be able to stop two gigantic toads, especially with us creating a fiery inferno when someone tries."

Ino jumped in. "And besides, we have several of the best ninja from the village on our side, including two of the three heirs to the title of Sanin. Not only that, but the third heir to the title is coming here as well, not to mention help from two of Konoha's most hated enemies."

"And we top that list right now." Naruto said, slamming his fist on the table. "We are their targets, all of Danzo's forces will be looking for us, I'm surprised he hasn't looked here yet, but I bet he knows that emissaries are coming here, so we can expect a visit from ROOT soon." He stood up and walked past Ino "It's time we get in gear, go to bed, tomorrow we train all day, no breaks. We'll push ourselves as hard as Guy and Lee used to."

Jiraiya nodded and left. But Ino stayed put.

"I'm not leaving." She stated simply.

"Fine, you take the bed, I'll take the couch." Naruto said.

"But I want the couch."

"Fine, I guess I take the bed."

"Then I want the bed."

"I see where you're going with this Ino, not yet, it's too soon to be thinking like that."

"But…"

"No, no buts, choose one and go to sleep, we have a long day tomorrow, and then the day after we have company, we have no time for games."

Ino grumbled, but crawled under the covers of the bed and went to sleep before her head hit the pillow.

Naruto was up a lot longer trying to figure out what was ahead of him in the next few years; because that's how long he knew they'd be exiled, not days, or weeks, not even months, but years. He gave up after several hours and went to sleep.

* * *

Ino thought she loved Naruto. But right now, she couldn't think of anyone she hated more. Every ex-Leaf ninja was supposed to complete one thousand push ups by mid-morning, or they would have to do a thousand sit ups as well.

"Five hundred and fifty one, five hundred and fifty two, come on Ino, only four hundred and forty eight push ups left, five hundred and fifty three, five hundred and fifty four, it's not that hard." He was saying as he kept pace with Ino and the others.

"Naruto, one thousand push ups is a little outrageous, don't you think? I mean, only Lee and Guy would even attempt it." Ten Ten said as she struggled to do another push up.

"Yeah, I know that they were the only two to use this training regimen, which is why we're doing it." He said.

"We don't have the strength they did." Kiba said to him from down the row of ninja. "Those two were borderline superhuman. No one here has half the power they did, it's impossible to think that we would even have a chance of following their training schedule."

"Nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it, now let's get this done, I really don't want to have to do a thousand sit ups. Five hundred seventy five, five hundred seventy six, five hundred seventy seven…" Naruto counted as the group did the push ups.

In the end they still did one thousand sit ups before jogging a thousand laps around Suna, and then they had to do a thousand punches, then a thousand kicks. Naruto was grinning the whole time.

Yeah, Ino hated Naruto at the moment, and so did everyone else.

* * *

Takuma stood in the Hokage's office with a small smile. Hinata walked into the room and draped herself on him, softly saying, "The task force has been sent my love, they are currently en route to Suna."

"Good." He said, kissing her lightly, "We will now move all our forces against the other villages, Sand first, then they should head directly to Mist."

"Why not sound my love? They have made a move against you."

"I can use the Uchiha; he is no threat to us."

"But they still have a large number of ninja left my love, they are still somewhat disorganized from Naruto's attack upon them, we could destroy them easily."

"Like I said, I still have a use for Sasuke; his men do not worry me. Let's not darken our thoughts, for soon we will bask in total control of the world." Takuma said with a smile, leading Hinata out of the office and into his quarters, the door closed slowly and locked behind them.

* * *

The evening came slowly for the trainees in Sand. Naruto had run them ragged; now he had something to say.

"Fellow ex-Leaf ninja, today we tried to perform Guy's training regimen, and we succeeded. There is only one problem; it is so taxing that half of you can barely stand. So in two days we will halve the work, only after we get used to that will we go to the full session."

The ninja gave a weak cheer; then dispersed to nurse sore or bleeding body parts. Ino slowly walked over to Naruto.

"Thank you for halving the schedule, it was killing all of us to do anything more." She said as she gave him a hug.

"We didn't even do the full one." Naruto said quietly. "I couldn't even begin to start us on the full one, we barely finished half of it today. If I'd have known how hard it was going to be, I would have used my own training schedule first, moving from easy into a little harder, and then the full schedule, it would have been so much easier. But tomorrow we have to deal with Sasuke and the other ambassadors from the hidden villages."

Ino kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Relax, I'm right here beside you, and I'm not moving, if you need a shoulder up, you've got mine. I'm here for you Naruto, don't share this burden alone."

"It's my burden to bear Ino. Now it's time we rest up, tomorrow, meet me at the gate, the ambassadors will be here around noon. Good night." He said as he walked off.

Ino sighed and walked back to the apartment she'd been given, she crawled under the covers of her bed and went to sleep.

All night she had fitful dreams involving Danzo killing Naruto, about half way through a nasty one that included dissection, she woke up and proceeded to pace around her room for an hour. She took some sleep aids to help her get back to sleep and drifted into a peaceful, dreamless slumber.

Ino was awoken by a bright light shining in her eye. She turned to look at her clock, the time was 11:55 A.M.

* * *

And this is chapter seven. It's not as good as I'd hoped, but at least it's done, happy Thanksgiving.

I still urge you to check out the poll, it ends Christmas day, you know, so if you haven't voted, go and vote, help out an aspiring writer…..please.

Well that's all I've got for you today, see you guys around mid December, bye.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I was hoping to get this out sooner, but school has taken priority over everything for a while. But I got this out way early any way, so no complaints there. If I don't tell you when I'll have the next chapter out after this one, it's because I have decided what to do about the poll and am writing the first chapter for it, but I doubt it, I'll start that after New Years.

On my poll, if it's a tie, I'll write the story that sounds better, then about ten chapters in I'll start the other, that way I could care les if it is a tie, which it's not at the moment people. Yay!

Well I've held you for as long as I wanted to, here is chapter 8.

* * *

_Ino was awoken by a bright light shining in her eye. She turned to look at her clock; the time was 11:55 A.M_.

"Oh god." Ino said as she threw on the set of clothes she had set out the night before. She jumped out the window and took off at high speed across the rooftops of Suna to the South gate where she was to meet Naruto for Sasuke's arrival.

Naruto was getting nervous. He had asked Ino to be here at noon, it was five minutes till and she wasn't here yet, and he knew the woman usually liked to be early for everything. Where was she?

"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn." Mumbled Ino as she shot across the rooftops, her destination seeming to get farther away than closer. How big was this damn city? _I'll never make it in time_ she thought. She pushed more chakra into her legs to increase her speed, she shot off like a rocket and made a leap that cleared almost five buildings, she landed deftly beside Naruto.

"You made it. What took you?" Naruto asked as she landed

"Sorry." She said "I kinda overslept."

"Well you made it just in time, Sasuke has been spotted heading this way with a large ninja following, my guess is that the ninja is Rengoku, though I'm not completely sure."

"It probably is, remember you let him live during our last encounter." Ino said. "Not that I'm accusing you of anything, if you hadn't I wouldn't be here right now."

Naruto was silent; then he whispered into her ear. "I'm glad you're here."

She grasped his hand "Me too." She replied

The gates opened and Sasuke walked in slowly, allowing the assembled group to see the horrible burns covering the right side of his face.

"Like what you see?" he asked the group with an ice in his voice. "The one who did it is standing right in front of me, if you would like to know."

"At the time Sasuke, we were enemies; I'm willing to bury the hatchet if you are." Naruto said coldly.

"And what do you have against me, if I might ask?"

"Let's see, you abandoned the village, killed several Leaf ninja, and to top it all off you put a chidori in my chest, I think that gives me a reason to be pissed."

"Fair enough." Sasuke said with a smile; looking around. "Ah, is that Sakura, well Team Seven is re-united at last, well, almost."

"Don't you ever talk about Team Seven, you prick!" Sakura spat. "You're the one who went out of your way to kill Kakashi! He was trying to save you, and you put his own jutsu through his chest, you bastard!"

She was trying to get at Sasuke with all her might, but found herself trapped within the grip of Kurenai and Tenten. Sasuke gave an evil grin.

"The old fool should have stopped trying to bring me back, I learned all he could teach me and moved on to a better teacher, just as Naruto did, but the teacher I chose was the more powerful of the two." He said smiling.

Jiraiya stepped forward "Ha ha, if he was then how is it that I'm still alive and he is dead"

"He is dead because he was careless, you and Naruto are only powerful when you are together; alone you both are weak."

Naruto growled; then made his own comment.

"I'm not the one who looks like a gay Freddy Krueger at the moment, you snake bastard, and I bet the only reason you liked that bastard Orochimaru is that he gave it to you good every night."

Sasuke lost his cool.

"You little shit stain, you don't know a damn thing, and if you ever say that again, I will kill you, not that I'm not going to kill you eventually any way! Orochimaru's only bitch was Kabuto; I made sure he stayed the fuck away from me."

Gaara sighed and took the initiative.

"Now children, let's not fight, we are here to make friends, now let's head to my office where we can speak freely without fear of espionage. Come!"

Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara walked back to the Kazekage's office and sat down. Gaara shut the doors after telling his secretary to cancel all of his prior engagements for the rest of the day.

Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other as Gaara sat down. He sighed and rubbed his temples. Sometimes it sucked to be Kazekage.

"Okay, we're here to discuss the alliance between Suna, Oto, and the nukenin of Konoha, who go by The Revolution, in any upcoming battles against Konohagakure."

"I accept."

"You haven't even listened to what I have to say."

"I don't care. Konoha took everything away from me; it's time I return the favor by taking their new Hokage Takuma."

Naruto and Gaara looked at each other, maybe they shouldn't tell him after all.

"Well then, there is one thing I have to say." Naruto stated "Our mission is to kill the Hokage and his followers. After that is done a new Hokage will be chosen, out of the Revolution of course. Then you and I will fight to the death Sasuke, if you beat me you get those precious eyes you've always wanted, and if I win I avenge Choji and Kakashi. Deal?"

"I'd like nothing better." Sasuke replied, grinning like a little boy who had just stolen from the cookie jar and gotten away with it.

* * *

Back at the gate Ino and the others were contemplating something.

That something was the snarling behemoth that was swinging a huge hammer around like a toothpick.

"Rengoku bored, Rengoku want smash." The giant said, slamming his hammer into a wall, leaving an angular hole almost two feet deep.

Ino sighed and signaled for the Konoha ninja to surround the man, bored or not, ally or not, this ninja was a threat to them and the village that was housing them, they were going to take him down.

Ino was issuing the command when Sasuke, Naruto and Gaara returned and Sasuke called off the beast.

"Rengoku, you fucking idiot, quit swinging that hammer now! Wait for the blood of our enemies before using it! Pile of trash, Naruto, I'm leaving him here under your command as a sign of good faith, I don't care if he dies as long as he dies fighting, understood, now I'll leave you to organize my men for the strategy you mentioned, I'll send a runner if it's within my abilities"

Gaara looked at Sasuke awkwardly, as if not wanting to say what he had to say.

"Actually, Sasuke, we need you to stay here for a little while longer, an emissary from Stone will be here in two days, and I'm sure he would like to speak with you as well."

Sasuke growled, but followed the Kazekage to his hotel suite where he would be staying for the period of his reluctant stay in Suna.

Rengoku looked at Naruto and kneeled.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked, looking at the monster who was kneeling, Rengoku looked up, still on eye level with Naruto, who wasn't short by any standards any more.

"Master wanted Rengoku under your command, so Rengoku bows." He said

"You don't need to bow to me Rengoku. All I ask of you is that you follow my orders, or whoever I have give you orders when I'm absent at the time, understood?"

"Understood." The behemoth repeated.

"Good, now go find a place and go to sleep, meet my group for training outside the city in the morning."

"Yes sir, Rengoku will go now."

"Oh another thing, stop talking in third person, it belittles you."

"Yes sir, Ren...I mean, I will."

"That is all."

The giant got on his feet and lumbered down the street, heading for a nice quiet place to sleep.

Naruto turned to Ino. Grabbing her he dragged her away from the others, taking her out of earshot of the others.

"What were you thinking of doing back there? Sasuke had just accepted to be allies with us and by attacking his men you could have damaged that, what did he do to cause such a reaction?"

"He was swinging his hammer around, he nearly hit each and every one of us, and then the bastard puts it two feet into a wall, he was a danger that I was more than happy to remove, why are you being so good to him?" she asked

"He is an interesting character, when he and I made eye contact, I could tell that he was an intelligent being, he just doesn't know how to wield his intelligence. Orochimaru's doing no doubt; only a sick minded fool like him would do something of the sort." Naruto replied, hissing out Orochimaru's name.

Ino looked at him quizzically, then shrugged and dragged him back to the group.

* * *

Naruto made it home late that night, he was walking home when he seen a large bulk lying in an alley to his right, he was curious and inspected the object. It didn't take him long to recognize it as a large person, and by that time he had put two and two together.

"Rengoku, get up, why are you sleeping on the street, I thought you would have found a hotel to stay at?"

Rengoku got up and rubbed his eyes. He looked at Naruto.

"Ren-I have never slept anywhere but on the ground, even when I was a baby at the lab..."

"Lab? Tell me about it."

"Well, Lord Orochimaru had many labs, and I was born in one of them, I lived there my whole life, spoken to as if I was a failed experiment, one day there was a raid on the lab, I'm the only one of the test subjects to survive, after that Lord Sasuke took an interest in me, giving me my hammer and placing me in his newly resurrected Sound Four. "

"Hmm I see, come on; let's find a hotel for you."

"Yes sir."

"And don't act so formal around me, just call me Naruto."

"Yes si-Naruto."

"Now that wasn't too hard was it?"

What was hard was finding a hotel that could house the brute, it took a while.

* * *

Naruto once again had them doing push ups, only five hundred, but that was still a lot. Everyone was struggling, well all except for two.

Naruto and Rengoku were doing the five hundred sit ups ahead of everyone else. Rengoku seemed to have a massive amount of strength and was used to a grueling workout. Naruto was Naruto, and he had his own massive amount of power.

The Leaf ninja were all looking at Rengoku with hate and disgust. Naruto glared at them all and they quickly went back to doing push ups, Naruto looked over at Rengoku, who seemed not to have noticed this transaction. Naruto's frown deepened when he seen the look in Rengoku's eyes, it was the same unemotional look he wore when receiving glares from the villagers.

Ino looked over at Naruto, who seemed troubled; she had been guilty of being one of those who had been glaring at Rengoku, but she couldn't help it. The monster of a man was from Sound, a village that was constructed to be the downfall of Konoha, and she didn't like that, in fact, she was pissed that they had even considered allying themselves with the monsters in the first place. But then she thought it over, she was doing exactly what Konoha had done to Naruto, and Naruto had found someone who was treated just as badly as he was, maybe, just maybe she could start to trust Rengoku too…

But first she needed to finish these push ups, she still had a hundred to go._ I really hate Naruto right now_ she thought. She looked around; none of the others were paying attention to their training, electing to shoot more animosity toward the behemoth who was now running laps with Naruto. Okay, a little glaring was all right, but when they disobeyed Naruto's orders…bad business.

"OI, GET YOUR LAZY ASSES BACK TO PUSHING UP OR I"LL KICK ALL OF YOUR ASSES. HEAR ME?" Ino shouted, giving the nearest ninja, Shikamaru, a swift kick in the butt.

"Ow. Oh man, this is such a drag, first we have to train all day, then the big guy shows up, and now we're getting pushed around by Ino, life sucks." He said solemnly as he got back to his push ups.

They finished their push ups and began on their sit ups, finishing just in time to see Rengoku and Naruto returning form running laps.

"Fuck it." Naruto said to them, "I know you don't like the situation, but get the fuck over it, you have to train, he has to train, he is a ninja under my command, as are you when you decided to take up arms against Takuma, as such you will get along as allies, it is the way of the shinobi, get the fuck used to it, now get out of my sight, the lot of you, be here in two days for the next training session, and I expect everyone to put forth more effort, do you get me?"

"Yes sir!" the ninja said in unison, all slightly miffed at getting told off like that. They dispersed quickly, leaving Ino, Naruto and Rengoku.

"Rengoku," Naruto said, "I'm leaving you in Ino's command for the rest of the day, since she is the only ninja who won't be hostile towards you at the moment, in two days, excuse yourself from training until mid-day, I've got to give the others a piece of my mind about their bullshit, now I've got to get something prepared, Ino meet me at my place around 8:30 all right?" and with that he was gone.

"Well I guess the best thing for me to do is show you around, come on." Ino said, walking in the opposite direction.

"Yes ma'am." Rengoku replied.

_I might actually get to like this guy_ Ino thought with a smile, he kind of reminded her of Shikamaru, he acted stupid was actually quite smart._ Yeah, I'll enjoy having another idiot to boss around._

She took him around the city and got to know his past, realizing that he and Naruto were alike in many ways, ostracized by their very own village, forced to getting only what people would sell them, always alone.

She left him to find his hotel room alone and quickly headed for Naruto's place.

* * *

Ino walked in to Naruto sitting on his couch idly.

"I'm here." She said, getting him to turn.

"Good, now we can talk, I've invited you here for two reasons, one, you are now my second in command, you are the only one I can trust, Rengoku may be a lot like me as I'm sure you've found out, but he's still a Sound ninja. So I need to keep more than just my eyes on him. For a while I've offered our services to Suna, so you and the others will carry out missions, while I act as your temporary Kage, issuing those missions to you, Rengoku will either be with me or with you at all times, understood?"

Ino nodded. "What's the second reason?"

"We'll have quite a bit of company tomorrow, keep everyone on guard, alert the others of this; consider it your first mission, dismissed."

Ino took off without another word, shooting off into the night to tell the others.

* * *

The morning came and was met with the sight of Gaara, Sasuke and Naruto standing by the west gate of Suna, alertly looking for the emissary of Stone. Naruto was impatient, Sasuke was angry, and Gaara was as impassive as ever.

They had been waiting about an hour after sun up when the emissaries troupe was seen heading toward the city, the group entered the gates and they were shut behind them. The Stone emissary, a retired ninja, jumped out and asked angrily, "What is the meaning of shutting us inside your city, what is going on?"

Naruto stepped forward "Greetings, I'm sorry, but this is the safest way to protect you from any attack, you must understand, having been a ninja yourself, that our position is very precarious."

"I know you!" the man said, pointing at Naruto. "You're the Demon of Konoha! This is a set up, let me leave now!"

"I'm not a shinobi of the Leaf anymore, which is why I called you here, I need help overthrowing the Hokage, and I believe you can assist me."

"Yes gentleman, let's discuss these plans out in the open where everyone can hear us. No? How about we talk about this in my office then, if you would all follow me."

It was just about that time that hell broke loose.

* * *

There was a gigantic explosion and all of the Suna ninja were in disarray. Luckily the ex-Leaf ninja were prepared and set out to face their attackers, but they weren't prepared for the ninja attacking them.

It was their families who assaulted them, along with about thirty of Konoha's best Jonin.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at Gaara, both saying the same thing at the same time.

"Protect the emissary."

Sasuke unsheathed his sword, Naruto pulled out his machete. Naruto gave a sly grin to Sasuke.

"Hey Sasuke, wanna see who can get the most candy?"

"Candy?"

"Oh come on, I know you love the coppery deliciousness as much as I do, let's see how many idiots we can kill, then let's feast on all the candy!"

"How twisted are you?" Sasuke said smiling, "But I'll take you up on the offer of a killing contest, there's about thirty, so the one who kills sixteen first, wins."

"Fine by me."

"Then let's begin."

* * *

Ino was crying as she dodged the barrage of punches and kicks aimed at her. The funny thing was, as she was crying, so was her father. She may have been crying, but she was also fighting back, making her father work for a victory

"Why did you kill the Hokage?" he asked her as he dodged a particularly nasty kick aimed at his face.

"I didn't kill Lady Tsunade, it was Takuma father, he was kidnapped by Danzo, the man had learned Orochimaru's immortality jutsu, and he used it and switched bodies with Takuma. You have to believe me!" she said, blocking a kick with her elbow.

"And why should I believe such a far-fetched story like that?" he asked, dodging another nasty kick, this one aimed below the waist

"Have I ever lied before?" she said, throwing a punch that connected right on Inoichi's nose.

"How about your engagement?" he retorted, wiping blood off of his face, the punch had broken his nose

"I didn't lie, I just hadn't mustered up the courage to tell you yet, I was afraid that you'd be disappointed in me." She said quietly.

"I wasn't going to be disappointed, I just wanted to know." He said "I've got my answers, now I'll give you Takuma's ultimatum , and then we'll continue, I don't care whether he really is Danzo or not, he's the Hokage of my village. His ultimatum is this, either keep fighting him and die or rejoin Konoha in one of the ROOT squadrons."

"I'm sorry father, but I have fallen for Naruto, and I choose to follow him to the death, he needs me, and I need him."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but as my daughter will you obey my final wish?"

"Of course father." She said getting back into her stance.

"Don't die." He said as he charged.

* * *

Kiba, Hana and Tsume were fighting some of the Jonin, and Kiba quickly spotted a ninja he wouldn't forget.

"You! You killed Guy! I'll kill you!" He shouted lunging forward with a kunai outstretched; the man was dead before he knew what hit him.

* * *

Sakura stared her parents down. They stood there with grim faces, Sakura was worried. Where was Shino?

* * *

Shino and his father stood a few feet apart, talking idly as their bugs did battle above them.

"So, you didn't kill the Hokage, and the only reason you're even here at all is because it's what Sakura wanted, did I interpret correctly?"

"Yes."

"Very well, then if you must know, your wife could use your help."

"Thank you." And with that Shino took off to help his wife.

* * *

Sakura watched as her parents charged, knowing that they would strike her whether she was pregnant or not. They had almost made contact when a wall of insects swarmed around her, and out of the swarm came an angry Shino, who went on a rampage.

"You would dare! You would dare touch my wife, your fucking daughter! You would try to harm her while she's pregnant! I won't let you keep your pompous attitudes any longer, Sakura and I have taken it for too long!" he shouted as he started an insane performance of taijutsu on Sakura's parents, pummeling both of them into the ground.

Sakura's parents backed away; then soon retreated under the oncoming onslaught; Shino was still raging after they left.

Sakura wrapped her arms around him.

"You did good, you did real good." She said with a smile.

* * *

Ino stood over the prone body of what was once her father, sobbing uncontrollably as a battle raged around her. Despite everything that had happened, Inoichi's face was locked in a smile.

"I promise father, I promise I won't die." She said standing up.

* * *

Shikamaru and Shikaku stood a good ten yards from each other. Both were gazing up at the clouds.

"It looks so peaceful up there." Shikamaru stated simply.

"Yeah, sometimes I wish I was a cloud." His dad said. "You know, floating wherever the wind took me, but then I remember what I am, and the responsibility I carry, it's such a drag."

"Yeah I know."

* * *

Tenten looked horrified as her jutsu struck her dad, every blade cutting deep into his flesh, and she barely resisted the urge to run to him as he limped away.

* * *

Neji was sweating as he faced three Hyugas in all their clan's glory. The resulting taijutsu match was an artwork of bodies in fluid motion, Neji dodged as many of the blows as the three were able to throw, using his skill to hit their chakra points as he did so. Neji finally had enough.

"I'm sorry my siblings, but there is no other way. 8 Trigrams: Rotation!"

The Hyugas went flying, slamming into buildings before falling into the alley below.

One was able to get back up, but Neji quickly settled into another stance

"Why didn't you just stay down? 8 Trigrams: Two palms!" he struck the man "Four palms!" again "Eight Palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-two palms! Sixty-four palms!"

The man fell down and did not rise again.

"I'm sorry it had to end like that, that much pain is not for any Hyuga to suffer."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke were having the time of their lives. Naruto would go for a person, chop off their limbs, then kill them; Sasuke would go in with lightning fast cuts till they bled out. Both were soaked in blood. Both loved the coppery taste that just didn't want to go away.

* * *

The ex-Leaf ninja gathered together and finished off the Jonin and watched as the others retreated.

"We have won our first victory today!" Naruto shouted loudly

Ino stood silent as she watched her friends cheer for their supposed victory.

* * *

Rengoku had managed to sleep through the whole episode, and was sorely disappointed that no one woke him up so he could smash some heads.

* * *

The Stone ninja were quickly escorted to the Kazekage's office, and Naruto and Sasuke showered off quickly before going to meet the emissary.

The old man knew of the two's past and didn't comment on it as they sat down.

"So, what is your plan of attack?"

Naruto spoke "We have decided to summon as many animals as possible to blow apart the wall, then send in as many ninja as will fit into the city, we storm the Hokage Tower, Kill Takuma, and set someone up as Hokage, it's so simple it's flawless."

"Well, I'll have to discuss it with my superiors, but I am willing to strike a truce now." The old man said.

"Then it's struck."

"Well a deal is a deal, I'll be back in two weeks with a definite answer, how large is this operation?"

"It's full scale, I want to see the Hokage die." Naruto said

"And Oto will help with our full force." Sasuke put in.

"Well then, we have nothing to worry about do we?" the old man said as he walked out the door.

* * *

Gaara stepped out to speak to Naruto.

"You knew it as going to happen didn't you, that's why your ninja were organized and able to jump on the scene immediately isn't it?"

Naruto sighed. "Ino, come with Gaara and I, it's time I explained everything."

They followed Naruto back to his apartment and he sat them on his couch, he pulled in a chair from the kitchen and sat down in it.

"Ever since I was placed under the seal I have been able to break into people's minds and listen in on their conversations, every person that comes into physical contact with me, gets a mental link, I knew when Danzo sent the group of ninja, and I prepared for it, he doesn't know I have eyes and ears in his deepest circles."

"And how have you done that?" Gaara asked

"I tackled Hinata remember. And before that I hugged her, just before I told her that we were completely over." Naruto replied.

"I see; that is most…useful, what other information do you have?" Gaara asked.

"Only that he can still use Sasuke somehow." Naruto replied. "And I also know that he uses Crest toothpaste."

"Very useful indeed."

"Quit being a smart ass Gaara, this is important."

"And I'm agreeing with you. It will be most useful in the following months on our campaign against Konoha."

"I know."

* * *

Afterwards Naruto and Ino were alone in his apartment. He was laying on the couch and she lain with him. After a while Naruto spoke.

"You were quiet when I explained myself, what do you think about it?"

"Have you been listening in on my conversations?"

"No."

"Then I'm perfectly fine with it." She said as she kissed him, leaning backward to do so. He smiled and flicked off the light, but only after saying.

"We are only cuddling, anything else and I'm on the floor, alone."

"You never want to have any fun."

"That kind of fun can wait till later, we both aren't ready for that intimacy yet and you know it."

* * *

"The attack was a failure my love." Hinata said quietly.

"I know, and we can't try again, we must wait for them to come to us." Takuma replied

Hinata laid her head on Takuma's lap "My love, I still think it was folly to let Sasuke and the Oto ninja live."

Takuma smiled and snapped his fingers, a man walked into the room.

"This," Takuma said, "Is why the Uchiha is no threat to us."

Orochimaru smiled. "Now what has my precious student been getting himself into."

"Don't worry Orochimaru; you'll get to see Sasuke again soon."

"I'd better."

* * *

Well hello, a fun ending isn't it, something I'd definitely do you know. I'm sick and twisted, expect chapter nine as a Christmas present, I hope I get it finished by then. I have a few things to say while I'm here, no one, and I mean no one, has really ever flamed me, why, are my stories that good, I want to read some nasty reviews almost as much as I want to read some very good reviews, but those people are silent as well, is my story that bad, or good, or whatever? Come on people, I need to know where I can improve, what I should change (though that one might not happen) and what I did good on, I need to know these things, so please review.

By the way, the poll is not at a tie anymore, but there are hardly any votes, it sucks, but I'll write the winning story, after I start posting it, the updates will go back to once a month, I'm sorry, but there is just a lot of crap on my plate at the moment, trying to keep all my grades at passing and trying to juggle all of the other school bullshit, I'm surprised I've found time to write in between my homework, which somehow never gets completely done. Now I'll get out of your hair, bye.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Well, merry Christmas to all of you, or well, yeah; happy-all-the-other-holidays too. No I'm not being racist or anything, it's just where I live, no one celebrates any of the other holidays, so I'm not used to saying happy holidays since I get berated out of my mind thanks to Walter and his oh so clever "Screw you it's merry frickin' Christmas" line every time I do. You have no idea how annoying that line gets until you hear it six or seven times a day.

This chapter is mostly about Ino, Naruto and Rengoku, and how they cope with their own problems after the battle, so don't expect much of the chapter to be happy.

Well I have good news and bad news; well it's bad if you read my other stories as well as this one.

Good: It's the end of the first semester here in America, so party on. And the year is coming to an end, 2009 is on its way! The Holidays we celebrate are also here, meaning more fun for us as well; I can't wait for New Years though, I love ushering in the New Year with my dad, we eat a lot, and I'm fat, so it's one of my favorite holidays, along with Thanksgiving.

Bad: I'm sorry, but to protect my sanity and this story I will not begin on Metal till March or later. Metal always blocks my brain up and fucks up everything else I'm working on, so I decided it would be best if I started the other story unencumbered by Metal, to insure its safety. I will apologize again to those who liked Metal, but I made too many mistakes in the first half to continue it so soon after I start a brand new story, let me get two chapters of the next story in and I'll get back to it.

Okay, I've been babbling on for quite a while, I apologize; here is chapter nine, my present to you.

* * *

Ino stared into the pool of water formed after the small rainstorm. The village around her was very lively. It seemed that every time it rained in Suna, the village would hold a small celebration for it, but all Ino got out of it were memories.

The memory of her and Choji's first kiss under an umbrella in the park.

The memory of her and her father at her favorite restaurant as a child, enjoying hot food while the rain pattered against the window beside the table.

As she stared into the puddle, the rain started again, just a slight sprinkle, but as a drop hit the puddle, her image flickered, and instead of her face, she saw her dad's.

She jumped away from the puddle in fright and sorrow, looking behind her to see if he was there, she saw no sign of him anywhere. She stood and walked through the town back to her apartment hoping against hope that no one would stop and talk to her.

She needed to be alone.

* * *

"Is this it?" Naruto asked, looking into a tiny room in the building that had become the quarters for the Revolution in the days after the attack by the Leaf ninja. "I'm supposed to lead my troops from this; it's barely big enough to fit a desk in here, much less two and all the equipment Ino and I will need to run the Revolution. How can I? I can't, not with this." He said looking at Gaara, who seemed amused by Naruto's reaction.

"This is the safest room in the building, plus all the other rooms have already been converted to living quarters for your 'troops', as you call them." He said with a slight smile.

"Sometimes Gaara, I think you're still trying to subconsciously kill me, are you sure the Akatsuki took Shukaku out of you?" Naruto asked.

"Who says it's subconscious, and yes, they did." Gaara replied.

Naruto laughed. "Good one."

"I was serious."

"Ino's not going to like the room either, and I don't like to be anywhere near her when she's pissed." Naruto said, changing the subject.

"She'll get over it." Gaara said; then he asked in a softer tone, "How is she?"

"Still the same, she had to kill her own father, how would you be?"

"Overjoyed."

"Well, your family had issues; hers had just gotten over theirs."

Gaara looked at his friend. "I have to return to my duties, but first, as the Kazekage, I must make a request, I want you to come by my office, I need to know the full extent of your telekinetic abilities. As a friend, I urge you to tell me all that you know about it, any small detail could cost us hundreds of lives next time you choose to withhold information from me."

Naruto looked down. "I will Gaara." He turned and walked down the hall.

"Tell her I feel for her loss." Gaara said offhandedly.

Naruto stopped, he turned back to Gaara. "I will." He said.

* * *

Ino had returned home and opened her small pantry, pulled out a bottle of sake, and sat down on the couch, taking a swig as she did. She coughed as the liquid burned its way down her throat; then took another drink. Consuming the contents of the bottle in a couple more drinks, she pulled another bottle out of the pantry.

Naruto walked in on this two hours and five bottles later.

He sighed and started picking up the empty bottles that were scattered all over the floor. He looked over at her and said. "You know, living like this could kill you."

"I don't care anymo-anymore" she mumbled, taking a swig from her current bottle, which was half empty. Naruto snatched the bottle from her, and hell broke loose.

Ino punched outward, nailing Naruto in the gut. He hadn't been expecting such a blow and it knocked the wind out of him. A moment later he found himself on the floor, Ino pinning him down, throwing punches left and right.

"Give…that…back." She huffed between punches.

Naruto freed his right hand and pushed her off of him. "No…you're not getting this back." He huffed. "You are going cold turkey from this stuff. From now on, you won't touch a bottle of alcohol without my permission."

"F-Fuck yo-you." She stuttered out, reaching into the pantry and grabbing another bottle, chugging half of it before Naruto got over to her.

Naruto yanked the bottle out of her hand, spraying both of them with alcohol; he threw the bottle to the side and pulled Ino into his arms, kissing her.

They stood still like that for more than a minute before Ino realized what was happening; she broke the kiss and slapped Naruto hard enough to send him staggering, landing face-first into the coffee table.

"You bastard!" she shouted. "It's the only way I don't see them when I sleep! You're not taking that away from me!" she screamed as she stormed out of the room.

After a few minutes Naruto stood up with a thoughtful expression on his face, he shook himself to rid his coat of glass shards from landing on an empty bottle; then walked out of the room and off to find his blond quarry.

Xxx

Ino sat at the bar three streets over. She took a drink and nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice spoke right beside her.

"You know, drinking's not the only way to rid yourself of those pictures." Said the voice, she turned to find herself looking at Naruto, who was nursing his own cup as well. He had acquired a cut from right under his eye to his jaw from where he had hit the coffee table. He looked solemn and weak somehow.

"It's the easiest way." Ino replied, taking a drink from her glass.

"It may be, but listen to what I have to say; about a year ago I found the pain of my sealing to be a bit unbearable. I would lay awake at night and just surrender to the pain, with images of the people I've killed floating through my head, I almost killed myself during that time, every time I'd close my eyes I'd feel my hands ripping apart Sasuke, and I'd see the bloody corpse that was Kiba, it got so bad that I didn't sleep for almost a week, until I found a cure for myself." He said.

"What was the cure?" Ino asked, looking at him hopefully.

Naruto smiled. "The cure was, as I would think about the horrors I had committed, I remembered the good things I did as well, I remembered my friends, and all those who had shown me kindness, the good memories dominated over the bad ones in my mind, and soon, I stopped having the bad ones altogether." He said.

"That works?"

"Yes it does."

"Then I'll try it."

They sat in silence for a while, quietly sipping their drinks.

"Hey Naruto." Ino said

"Yeah."

"When you thought of your friends, was I one of them?" she asked

"To tell you the truth, no, you and I barely knew each other, and you always passed up the chance to go and stalk Sasuke. Was I?" he replied, throwing in a question of his own.

"I can't say you were. You were loud and obnoxious; you had bad taste in clothes, and you always had a shit-eating grin on your face." She said with a smile.

"What were the chances that we'd be as close as we are now?" He said. "But there is something I have to say, what you said in your apartment troubles me."

"How?"

"You see other people; I want you to see only me, as I see only you."

She smiled "Are you jealous?"

"Yeah, so."

She leaned over and kissed him. "Don't be, from here on out, it's just you and me."

He smiled; then stood. "I expect you to be in the center room on the third floor of our building tomorrow, I also expect you to be sober and ready for work. In addition, as much as I like you, I can't believe you'll go from alcoholic to pleasure drinker in one night, so you will move in with me so I can keep an eye on you and make sure you stay away from the stuff. Oh, Gaara sends his sympathy." With that he got up, paid for their drinks, and walked away, leaving Ino to finish her drink.

"I don't want it." She said as she took a drink.

* * *

Ino panted with exhaustion. They had worked the entire day and found that the tiny room could in fact fit two desks with computers, two chairs, and a trashcan, but anything else, nope.

She sat down in her chair and brought up the program Naruto had been working on. He had set up a system that showed all incoming missions and requests from every hidden village to the Revolution. The system was encoded, so only the allies of the Revolution, those would be Sand, Rock, and Sound, could understand what was on the screen.

It also had fun games, which was how she was currently trying to battle with fatigue.

Naruto smiled from his desk, he turned to her and said. "I just got the program complete, all of the systems are running and our missions are listed ready for us to issue and check off." He looked at her computer screen and sighed. "Ino, we don't have time for games, we have to get down to the training grounds and get everyone here so we can send them out on missions, we need the cash, Gaara won't be able to keep us here in Suna without it, we're already deep in debt, let's pay it and then figure out what we're going to do from there."

She logged out and they took off towards the training fields.

* * *

Rengoku didn't understand, he was the Revolutions ally, and he was ordered by Lord Naruto to train with them, but three of them wouldn't let him on the field.

"Why do you block my way?" he asked "Are we not allies?"

"You're from the Sound." Neji stated coldly.

"We don't trust anyone from the Sound." Tenten added.

Shikamaru sighed and looked up at the clouds.

This was the scene Kiba walked up to.

"Come on guys," he said, "here, I've worked with Rengoku before, he's trustworthy."

Neji turned to him "Yeah, but how can we trust a traitor's words?" he asked with a mocking tone.

Akamaru growled, and Kiba's family, who had been behind him stiffened, Tsume stepped forward.

"I dare you to repeat that." She said angrily.

Neji smiled "Kiba. Is. A. Traitor." He said calmly.

Tenten pulled a scroll from her pocket, ready to use it at a moment's notice. "Now, we don't train with traitors or anyone from the Sound, so if you value your lives, you should leave."

"This is such a drag, but yeah, I'll fight." Shikamaru added.

Neji switched his stance, ready to unleash the 128 Palms technique.

He never got into the stance.

* * *

Naruto and Ino were walking down to the training fields when Naruto stiffened. He stood like that for several seconds, then his face hardened and he took off at high speed for the fields.

Ino stood there for a full minute before she realized she was alone, she sighed and took off after Naruto.

"Hey Naruto, wait up!" she shouted as she ran.

* * *

Neji was shifting into his stance when he felt something constrict around his neck. He was lifted into the air and shook violently. No matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't get free of the force around his neck; he opened his eyes and looked at his captor.

It was Naruto.

Naruto had a hard look in his eye, and his anger radiated around him like a cloud. "Didn't I tell you to work together!" he shouted. "I warned you that whoever broke that rule would face severe punishment, and now I have to deliver it. Ino, go fetch Sakura, we'll need her healing powers after I'm done."

"Yes sir." She said, taking off to find her friend.

"Now." He squeezed harder as he spoke. "It's time for your punishment."

Naruto delivered a bone crushing blow to Neji's stomach, knocking what little wind the chocking Hyuga had left; then he threw Neji into the building ten yards away. Neji landed headfirst.

Neji stood, what did he do to deserve this? What did he do? He was just trying to protect himself, and now the leader of this little group was smacking him around like a rag doll. Those thought were flying through his mind as Naruto sped toward him, slamming against the wall again. Neji coughed and watched out of his pale eyes as a glob of blood splattered against the ground. Naruto backed off, and Neji landed on his knees; he looked up at Naruto.

"F-forgive me sir." He said as he stared into Naruto's slate gray eyes.

Naruto smiled. "All is forgiven, for now." He turned and walked away.

Neji's vision flickered, and Naruto was replaced by Sakura, who quickly assessed the damage.

"He has four broken ribs, his stomach is almost completely pulverized, and he has severe internal bleeding in the esophagus. Naruto; what exactly did you punish him for?" she asked as she hurriedly repaired as much of the major injuries as she could using her medical ninjutsu.

"He disobeyed a direct order, one in which I said that there would be severe punishment in doing so, what else is as severe as a near death experience?" Naruto asked.

"You didn't have to be so thorough though." She replied.

"I like being thorough." He said, "Now that that's out of the way, I want all battle ready ninja to the center room of the third floor of our building in an hour, Shino, I'm taking you off battle ready status, you need to be with your wife and I need someone here just in case. Now Shino, I want you to go find Jiraiya, look at any bathhouse or brothel you find, that's where he'll probably be, also look in any bar, especially if it's dingy, he likes those kind of places, I have a special mission for him, you are all dismissed." He turned and all of them took off to their respective mission; all except for Neji, Sakura, Ino and Naruto.

"Sir, I want a mission." Neji said weakly.

"Sakura, is he able to go on missions?" Naruto asked his pink haired medic.

"Not for a couple days, I've repaired everything, but the tissue is still too weak to take any blow, even a poke from a five year-old could probably cause internal bleeding."

"There, you heard her, in a couple days."

"But…"

"No but's." Naruto said sternly.

"Very well sir." Neji said with a sigh.

"Come on Ino." Naruto said. "We have to get back to our desks to hand out missions."

Ino sighed "Yes sir." And with that, they walked away.

* * *

Ino was near tears as she handed out missions, and so were the ninja, the main reason being, all of the missions were either low C-rank or D-rank.

"I'm sorry, but that's all Gaara saw fit to pass us." Naruto said when asked. He looked about as happy as everyone else at the mission choices, but he dutifully handed them out, giving reassuring comments when the ninja looked at him with shocked expressions, as soon as all of them had been assigned a mission, Naruto stood and walked out the door, saying.

"I'm going to go talk with Gaara, keep an eye on things while I'm gone. I won't be too long." He said.

Ino leaned back in her chair. "You got it boss." She said with a smile, going back to her computer for some game time.

* * *

Gaara was enjoying a very good dream when an explosion of sorts woke him. He jumped out of his seat, throwing his sand at the source of the explosion; his sand met nothing but the afterimage. He looked around and stopped moving completely when he felt something poke the back of his head.

"I guess you forgot to put the sand shield around you." A voice said from behind him.

"It takes too much chakra to keep it up." Gaara said, turning to face his attacker. Naruto smiled.

"So I bust down your door and you try to kill me, very friendly Gaara." Naruto said, putting the kunai away.

"You woke me up, never wake me up." Gaara replied angrily.

"You know, at one point and time, waking you up was the only thing that would stop you from killing everyone in sight." Naruto said.

"Yeah, and you decided that the best way was to give me a headbutt from hell. That gave me a headache for weeks you asshole." Gaara said with a smile.

Naruto laughed; then he sat down in the chair, all business. "So, what did you call me in here for?"

"I need the full extent of your telepathic abilities explained, you gave me scraps the last time you did, I want it in full, and I know you know something else too, I want it all. Now."

Naruto sighed; he took a deep breath, and then began. "They come as dreams, and only rarely, especially if the other person is experiencing a heavy emotion. As for what I know, I seen the flash of a face of a man that's supposed to be dead, I know Takuma has all of Orochimaru's scrolls, all of his jutsu, but I don't know of any jutsu that will allow him to bring back the dead."

"I do." Jiraiya said from behind Naruto. "Naruto has told me who he believes Takuma brought back, it's very possible he did, he might have used the jutsu he used on the Third. If that is the case, we are in trouble, and he's back."

"Who?"

"Orochimaru."

They were all silent for a while before Naruto spoke.

"You know, it was you who routed missions over to my group. Why did you give us all the crappy missions?"

Gaara smiled. "You'll get better missions Naruto, those were all I could spare today."

Naruto humphed, "I'd better."

* * *

Rengoku slowly walked back to his hotel, he had stopped at almost every restaurant in the area, but all of them had turned him away. Out of desperation he stopped at the small okonomiyaki place beside his hotel.

"Well, we have what's sure to be a good customer here!" the old lady at the counter said. "Come on in, don't be shy, this here is the best okonomiyaki in Suna, sit down, I'll get you some right away, and since you're one of them that stopped the invasion last month, and I know you're a part o' that group by the way, it's on the house." She sat a plate in front of him.

He smiled and began eating.

* * *

Ino had finished moving her stuff into Naruto's room when he opened the door; he looked around and smiled. She had redecorated the whole entire apartment, and it now boasted purple everywhere you looked.

"I guess that purple is going to follow me around for the rest of my life, huh?" he asked playfully.

"Yep." She replied kissing him. She swiftly turned and ran into the kitchen, carting back enough booze to knock them out easily.

"Ino, I thought I told you that you needed to stop that." He said.

"What? We can't drink on your birthday now? I wanted to celebrate the right way." She said with a grin, kissing him again.

"How'd you find out?"

"Sakura."

"Oh…figures."

"Now shut up and drink this stuff with me, I could probably do it by myself, but it would be no fun that way." She said, opening a bottle and taking a large quaff.

Naruto smiled and grabbed a bottle himself and joined the festivities.

* * *

Morning began a new day, and the beginning of hell for both of them.

* * *

I want to apologize real quick for how short this chapter is, but it was mostly filler anyway, so no big deal. I actually like a change, it's not as serious as some of my other ones, and there's no shitty false comedy in it either, it's just 'lighter'. Well I hope you enjoyed!

So, chapter nine out to the public; as I said, on Christmas day. I hope you liked it, as it was supposed to be a good Christmas present. If it wasn't, my bad, chapter ten might not be out until the end of January, or early February as it is going to be the longest chapter I've done so far, and the first chapter of the winner of the poll should be out sometime mid January or late January. Metal will be resumed in March, and I got a lot of shit on my plate, don't I? Well, it's better this way, I like a challenge, and three stories at a time will definitely be a challenge, so, merry Christmas and have a happy all-the-other-holidays as well. I love all of you.

See ya!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Yeah, this chapter is out earlier than I expected, and for a good reason, I've been busting my ass for you guys all this month, giving you what will be the longest chapter of this fic. I know it's been almost a month since I posted chapter nine, but if this chapter is almost double the length, which it is, by the way, it more than makes up for it. This chapter is mostly a huge fight scene through over half of it, and I realized that last time, not everybody got a fight scene, so this time, if I want them to fight, they aren't just going to be mentioned briefly, I am going to go into detail about each fight, so enjoy that, I know I'll enjoy writing it.

I've made up my mind, I'm discontinuing Metal, I just don't have the heart for it anymore, be prepared to see it wiped from Fanfiction March 2nd, its birthday (When I first posted the story). I'm truly sorry to those who liked it, but every time I sat down to type up the next chapter, I just couldn't, I made too many mistakes to even think I could help it with a second half, it would be just as horrible as the first. I don't like Metal, and an author shouldn't write something he doesn't like, even if he's poured hours of his life into it, it's just not worth the outcome anymore.

So, to those that read the first chapter of Blood and Water, what did ya think, I came up with some pretty interesting ideas for that story, and after I finish this one, I won't write another till I'm almost done with that one, and it'll be the longest fic I've written, I'm aiming for forty plus chapters, ten chapters per arc, the escape arc being the first. I might actually do more or less chapters per arc, but I won't know until I'm ready to start and ending to that arc, the only hint of what is to come in Blood (codename) is that it'll be several months before Naruto and Temari reach his 'New land of unimaginable wealth and prosperity' of course, those who have got the hint from the summary know exactly where Naruto is headed, and might have some foresight to what is going on, but I sincerely doubt they will be prepared for some of the things that will happen in Blood. I write darker fics, my Naruto and friends all seem to come out strangely twisted and insane, hm, maybe it's just my lot in life.

As I said earlier, this is a long chapter, and a seriously long Author's Note. So if you get bored, feel free to get up and grab a snack, this'll be here forever, get un-bored and then continue reading; it'll be worth it in the end.

This chapter starts with a lot of action, and ends with a surprise, so be prepared. I've stolen your attention long enough; on with the deliciousness that is the tenth chapter of Five Star Seals: Breaking the Chain That is Love.

* * *

An explosion shattered the quiet of the night, coming from the floor above Naruto's apartment.

Ino woke with a scream as the door was blown open, ten or so ninja entering. The scream woke Naruto and the man was soon chopping off limbs with his machete in nothing but boxers. He soon had pushed the group of ninja out into the hallway, the windows bashed in, showing that these ninja had come from the roof.

"These men are Leaf!" he shouted to her. "Go! I'll hold them here; make sure everyone else is safe!" He finished as he decapitated a short ninja as he jumped to stab Naruto in the face with a kunai.

* * *

A few minutes later a fully dressed Ino waded through the dead on her way to the stairs. She only had to face one ninja as he jumped through the window to her left, quickly dispatching him by slitting the man's throat. She made her way down to the empty floor below, she quickly made note that it was Naruto the men were really after, she stumbled from door to door, alerting the ex-Leaf ninja to the current situation.

Many chose to follow her outside. All gaping at the destruction that they bore witness to.

Suna was in flames.

* * *

Naruto growled as another team of ninja burst through the windows. He swung his machete wildly, hacking off several limbs before turning and dispatching their owners. He turned and groaned as even more ninja made their way into the hallway. His work was really cut out for him. He drove his machete through some poor saps' chest; then twirled it right through the ninja beside him, his momentum carrying him through another ninja and back to the man he impaled. He barely registered as another three came through the window.

Naruto created a gust of wind, pushing the ninja away before rapidly flying through hand seals; he inhaled and shot a huge ball of fire at the ninja in front of him, incinerating the first row of ninja in front of him. Their numbers quit increasing and he quickly counted how many were packed into the hallway with him, forced to fighting two or three at a time.

There were over twenty ninja to deal with, all chunin or higher.

* * *

Ino stared at the destruction surrounding her. It was unbelievable; Leaf ninja were running around slaughtering all who came into view. The others were just as stunned; but unlike her, who was at the very back of the group, they had been seen by a group of Leaf ninja and had engaged them. Neji limped out of the building and made his way to stand beside her.

"Lady Ino, we have to get to the Kazekage and his men, they have bunkered down in the Kazekage Tower, we can head there immediately, your safety is our concern." He turned and was assaulted by three jounin, he quickly engaged, but was also quickly outmatched, he was still injured from Naruto's punishment.

Neji bravely fought against the ninja trying to kill both him and Ino, but soon he found himself on his knees in front of the three.

"You put up quite a fight, Hyuga. But I would have expected more out of you, the 'genius' of your clan." The leader of the three said, drawing back his arm, preparing to drive a kunai through his heart. But just at the last second, a huge chunk of flying metal collided with his body, splattering Neji with blood and bits of flesh, Neji's eyes had been trained on the kunai, he hadn't even seen the object coming, but he did see, after a few moments of searching, the one who threw it enter the range of his eyes.

Rengoku was upon them immediately, pulling his battle-axe out of what was left of the corpse of the first ninja and quickly dispatched the other two with a few quick swings of the axe. After he was finished, he turned to the two behind him.

"Lady Ino." He said as he bowed; then he turned to Neji. "Do you trust me now, Lord Neji?" he asked with a small smile.

Neji smiled. "Not really, but then again, I'm a ninja, and a ninja doesn't trust anyone."

Rengoku laughed. "That's good enough for me; I'll just go and help the others out. Wait, where's Lord Naruto?" he asked.

A body flew out of the third story window. Ino smiled fiendishly. "Take a guess." She said.

Rengoku laughed again as he rushed to help the other Revolution members. His axe flashing with bloody glee as it demolished another opponent.

Ino helped Neji stand and walked him toward the hospital where Sakura was earning her keep, maybe she was safe.

Shino was supposed to be with her, wasn't he.

* * *

A Few Minutes Earlier.

Shino was rushing to the hospital; he had just given Jiraiya the parcel when he sensed the Leaf ninja entering the city. He had quickly relieved himself of the old pervert and began his cross city dash to get to his wife, wishing, hoping that they wouldn't target the hospital.

He was almost there when an explosion rocked the city. He stopped, hyperventilating, and took the deepest breath he could. He looked around for the smoke. It was coming from the area of the Revolution HQ. He now had a decision, his wife, or his wife's happiness.

Well she was going to be pissed at him, not like it was new or anything.

* * *

Naruto ducked under the sword that whizzed above his head. He quickly put his machete through the man's throat and spun around, expecting another enemy, the hallway was empty.

He ran and jumped out the window, pushing chakra into his legs to strengthen them as he landed nimbly, he took off in the direction Ino and the other's had headed. If they wanted to head to the hospital, fine, he had to pick up something from there anyway.

And that something was what the Leaf ninja were after, no doubt.

* * *

Gaara's sand crushed another opponent, and the rain of kunai and shuriken from the Sand ninja stopped any advance. They were safe, for now. Gaara looked at the plume of smoke that rose from his city. Thousands were dying because he had accepted the Revolution. This was his fault, his and Naruto's. He looked down at the mass of blood and gore that had been a squad of Konoha ninja. There had to be more to this than fighting, if only…"

Gaara froze, cutting off all thought other than the piece he was chewing on right at that moment. So that's why they came here, but most of the Konoha ninja had been attacking the Kazekage Tower and the Revolution HQ, they thought it was in one of those buildings. He had to get it before they did.

"Temari, Kankuro!" He ordered, the two stood at attention and waited for more orders. Gaara smiled at the loyalty of his siblings. "I'm going for a walk; sister, stay here and guard the Tower; brother, take a squad to the next entrance to the Tower, do not let anyone enter."

"Yes Gaara." They said in unison, both jumping to begin their respective tasks.

Gaara jumped over the barrier and walked toward the hospital, killing a Leaf ninja as he tried to attack. Gaara's sand swirled around him like smoke, lashing out at any ninja who tried to get close.

It was still going to be a long walk to the hospital.

* * *

Sakura watched with horror as the Revolution HQ exploded. Here she sat, in a room in the hospital, watching as her friends and loved ones died.

She sat on the floor, knowing that eventually the enemy would come looking for her here. She was with the pride and joy of the Revolution. She stared at the syringe in her hands. It had taken her months to come up with this, and now they were here to take it. There were only two possible outcomes now. Either she destroy the syringe, and herself, to protect the Revolution and stop Danzo from ever getting it, or she wait and let them take it.

She pulled out a kunai, fully prepared to do this, when a hand grabbed her from behind.

* * *

Shino jumped through the window and landed lightly, making almost no noise at all, but it didn't matter. His wife wasn't paying attention to anything but the syringe in her hands. He watched for a moment, slowly trying to understand what she was doing, he saw the kunai and everything clicked, his hand shot out and grabbed her, spinning her around and ripping the kunai from her hand.

"Sakura, what possessed you to do this?" he said, almost emotionlessly, but Sakura could tell he was disturbed by the way his bugs hummed. She let out a cry and practically tackled him.

"You're all right, I thought you were dead!" She looked around, as if hoping to see something. "Why did you come, where's everyone else?" she asked after a moment.

Shino sighed "I had just delivered the message to Jiraiya when my beetles sensed ninja infiltrating the village. I had to ensure your safety, the HQ blew up on my way here, but right now that doesn't matter, we must expect the worst. I want to know what is in that syringe and why it is so important that you would kill yourself over it."

Sakura hesitated; then began. "After the first attack on us a month ago, Naruto came to me in desperation, he had talked over something with Gaara, and then he told me about it."

"About what exactly?"

"Naruto can see through the eyes of people he comes into physical contact with. He came to me to ask for help, on either reproducing the effect, strengthening it, or removing it from him completely, this syringe is the finished product, and our most effective tool against Danzo. It will give us one chance at ending this without more unneeded bloodshed. It will modify Naruto's ability, he will not only be able to see out of a person's eyes, but completely control that person's body."

"By that person, you mean Hinata right?" Shino said.

Sakura gave a small smile. "That's why he didn't notify you or Kiba, and he told me not to tell anyone else either, not even Ino knows and she's his second in command. He said the information was too secret to be entrusted to anyone but Naruto and I."

Shino's eyebrows furrowed, indicating he was thinking. He slowly began speaking. "So to ensure the safety of the Revolution, you set out to destroy not only the formula, but the creator of it as well." He stopped talking for a moment, noting something. "Don't ever put the Revolution in front of yourself again."

His control slipped, and he clutched Sakura to himself, communicating his fear of what she had been about to do to herself. "Don't ever do that, I can't afford to lose you, I love you too much." The way he said it was flat and factual, but it was more emotion than he had ever been able to convey to her before.

She smiled and kissed him. Not looking at the people that had been in the room since she had explained the syringe.

* * *

Ino looked at the couple in front of them with longing eyes. Not that Naruto and herself weren't close, and they had shared many moments when she _believed_ that Naruto loved her, but he had never said it. But why would he, they had only just started _being _together, she used that as an excuse for her mixed emotions and tried pushing the thought away, but a small part of it stayed with her.

"Ahem." She coughed, getting the attention of the two sitting on the floor. "I think we need to get moving. We can probably meet Naruto at the Kazekage Tower; I believe that's where he'll be right now…"

The door was blown inward and a worried Naruto stepped through the doorway.

"The formula?" Naruto asked hastily.

"It's safe." Sakura replied.

"Good, destroy it now."

W-why?" Sakura said, shocked. "It's our most valuable weapon…"

"Yeah." Naruto said cutting her off. "And it'll be in the hands of Danzo if it isn't destroyed now, Sakura, just follow my orders, forget the formula for now, push it to the back of your mind, there are enough Leaf shinobi outside to obliterate us, and I want that formula gone before they have a chance to analyze it."

Sakura was silent for a moment, a cold look in her eye at the knowledge of Leaf shinobi in the Sand village; then she nodded, and began the procedures to turn the serum into water using her chakra. Naruto turned to the others.

"I don't know how long we can hold them back, but we better try. Shino, Neji, stay up here with Sakura. Shino, once she has finished destroying the formula, send a bug to alert me, then come and help us fight, Neji, I want you to guard Sakura, this is the equivalent of an S-class mission back in Konoha; she has vital information on every single one of us, since she is our medic. Rengoku, head towards the Kazekage Tower and alert Gaara and his family, we could use their help."

"Yes Lord." Rengoku said and with that he took off.

"Yes sir." Neji said with an intake of breath. He was finally going to redeem himself for his mistake the day before.

"And Neji."

"Yes?"

"I understand your point of view on Kiba and Rengoku, but Rengoku is a member of our group now, under my orders, and he is also Lee's replacement on your squad, for now. He needs to train with you to adjust to the way you and Tenten fight, so you will get along, this goes for you too, Tenten."

She looked down at her feet. "Yes sir, my apologies sir."

"Kiba is a part of our group and will be treated as such, understood?" Naruto asked

"Yes sir." Neji said.

"Yes sir." Tenten repeated.

"Now move!" he ordered, and the rest of the ninja made their way down to engage the Konoha shinobi.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of the hospital ten minutes later as he surveyed the city. Houses were destroyed and any building near the Kazekage Tower or the Revolution HQ was burned to the ground, and all citizens in those respective areas were either dead or hiding, why had it come to this.

The answer was simple, Naruto himself had caused all of this, his existence was the reason countless people were dead, and not just from this village, Naruto himself had killed so many.

But he didn't blame himself; that would lead to far worse emotions, and he'd end up tearing himself apart.

No, he blamed Danzo. And he hated him with every fiber of his being. Danzo had sent these men, the fifty or so chunin that now stood in front of him, shaking; he had sent these men to their deaths, knowing how futile it would be. He hated Danzo, he raised his arm, preparing to order his men to attack, when he heard the soft voice of someone he wished to never see again.

"Naruto, lower your arm and give me the serum." Hinata said in her quiet mutter. But it wasn't the Hinata he knew; there was no uncertainty in her voice, just a cold, emotionless drone. "I have no wish to send my men to their deaths, and you have no wish to do the same."

"How did you know of the formula?" he asked.

Hinata smiled, her pale skin reflecting in the moonlight making her seem to shine with an unearthly light, the darkness billowing around her like a cloak. "The connection works both ways, when you became elated at the success of Sakura, I got a glimpse of what was happening and alerted Takuma immediately, since then he has not let me near him, for fear that you will use it; that is why I'm here now. I want that formula; give it to me Naruto."

Naruto frowned. "If that is the case, I will find a way to sever our link, or completely destroy my mental power forever." A bug landed on his shoulder and his frown quickly turned into a spiteful smile. "As for the formula, it has been destroyed. You have come all this way for nothing Hinata."

"That is not the case, I can still kill you. That way no one else can claim you for themselves."

"It's too late for that." Ino said as she walked out of the hospital to stand by Naruto, who looked at her with a smile. "I have already lain claim to him, he's mine Hyuga, go back to the snake loving wretch, you whore."

Hinata's expression became cold, and anger radiated from her in waves, her killer intent flooding over them, and making her chunin gasp for breath. "You will pay for those words Ino, I once valued you as a friend, until you stole what is most precious to me; I'll kill you here and now!" She activated her Byakugan and prepared to attack.

Naruto's face hardened, and then his expression began to change; his eyes took on a red sheen, the shattered glass effect on them disappeared and his fangs lengthened. Ino had seen this only happen once, and now that same horror was going to be unleashed again.

"_**You will not touch her Hinata, I would rip you limb from limb and devour your heart before you came close."**_ He rasped, the killer intent rolling off of him was enough to completely paralyze the chunin, and Hinata took a step back.

"I-I thought you could not release the Kyuubi." She said, frightened of the beast that stood but fifty yards away.

Ino sighed. "If this was the Kyuubi, you'd have already been dead; Naruto explained to me what this is. He bottles his anger, unleashing it like he would the Kyuubi, and thanks to the fact that the Kyuubi's chakra has pumped through his system, he was able to duplicate the effect of releasing the Kyuubi. "

Hinata didn't look reassured, and that was a good thing.

Ino looked at the feral man beside her. "Well my darling, let's not keep them waiting, do you want the chunin, or should the others and I handle them?"

"_**Do what you want."**_ He growled._** "But Hinata's mine."**_

"Very well, come on guys, let's kill us a few Leaf ninja." She said, waving to the others in the hospital, they all charged forward, preparing their weapons of choice. Ino herself pulled out a kunai and led the charge into the mass of chunin, who were still paralyzed by Naruto's killer intent.

* * *

Naruto himself phased out and reappeared beside Hinata, launching a powerful kick to her side. She gasped as she flew almost fifteen feet before landing and rolling. She touched the spot gingerly, gasping at the light touch. Two of her ribs were broken, that much she knew. She coughed and a glob of blood flew out of her mouth. Apparently one of those ribs had punctured a lung, or at least grazed it.

She stood on shaky legs and slipped into her clan's stance, preparing to fight. Once again Naruto moved with speed her Byakugan couldn't track and delivered a punch to her stomach, she doubled over and emptied the contents of her stomach on the ground. She looked up, staring into the terrible eyes of the man in front of her. "You think killing me will solve anything?" she asked.

"_**No, but it'll make me feel a whole lot better."**_ He said, pulling his machete off of his back; taking his eyes off of her for a moment.

Hinata took the advantage; she quickly got into the sixty-four palms stance and attacked.

Naruto stood and took all sixty-four hits. He fell to the ground, and then got back up, back to his usual form.

"That was very good Hinata, but can you stop me, or are you going to retreat for now, considering we've won." He said.

"I choose to fight and die Naruto, as you well know."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that."

* * *

Ino slit the throat of an unsuspecting ninja and was quickly surrounded as it snapped those around him back to reality. She smiled and sidestepped as one rushed in trying to punch, she grabbed his wrist and drove her palm forward, just below the elbow. He cried out as his arm broke. And with that second of hesitation, she pulled out another kunai and struck him in the heart, ripping it out to her right as she spun to avoid a rain of shuriken from one of the others. She flicked the kunai in the general direction and wasn't surprised to hear the tinkle of metal striking metal as the chunin deflected the projectile. But the chunin made one mistake; she had taken her eyes off of Ino.

Ino had really only needed one jutsu in her arsenal when she had been on her team as a genin and only learned a few more as a chunin, but after she became a jounin, she had taken to spending hours pouring over scrolls to learn new jutsu to help keep her and her teammates alive.

That was paying off now as she flew through hand signs.

"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Missile!" she said as she let loose the bolt of fire. The poor chunin was incinerated before she knew what hit her.

The other chunin gaped; then jumped back, putting as much room between them and Ino as they dared. Ino smiled and charged headlong into the middle of the group, killing another with a kunai before the last four were able to retaliate. Ino felt a sting as a kunai entered her upper right arm. She cursed herself for being stupid and leapt back, putting about ten yards between herself and her opponents.

She assessed the situation, the best possible strategy was to fight them one on one, but it was more likely that they would attack with two groups at the same time. If that was the case the best possible scenario would be to unleash her jutsus on one of the teams, hoping to eliminate it, and then go toe to toe with the other team, where her skill outmatched theirs, but did she have the chakra to perform any more jutsu, she sighed, she had used quite a bit getting to the hospital and then more during the fight here. And the only jutsu she knew were fire techniques that took quite a bit of chakra for her to perform

The chunin separated into two halves, just as predicted, Ino didn't have time to think, just act. She made a few hand signs before a wall of earth separated the two groups. She smiled and began on a new set of signs.

"Let's see you survive this. Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" she shouted, inhaling; then exhaling a giant ball of fire at one group. The two tried to stop, but their momentum carried them right into the fireball. Ino fell to her knee and checked on the other group. They were over three fourths of the way to her. She sighed and took a deep breath, waiting till the last second to jump up, shooting her arm outward, slamming her fist into the chest of the closer of the two; a boy no older than sixteen. She felt his ribs snap inwards and watched as his eyes went wide, before he coughed up a large amount of blood and collapsed. The other chunin took Ino's lapse in attention to her advantage and began her own set of hand signs, launching a stream of fire at her.

Ino jumped backwards and felt the heat melt the bottom of her sandals; she quickly undid the straps and flung the useless footwear off. She didn't hesitate to charge in, throwing a punch. The chunin blocked it easily and sent a kick upwards towards Ino's jaw, which Ino caught, flinging the chunin away and pulling out several shuriken, she threw all but two and followed after the projectiles.

The chunin jumped out of the way and was caught off balance as Ino ran forward, shuriken in hand, and began slicing at the poor ninja, by the time she was able to pull out a kunai to block the shuriken, she had received several cuts on her face and her arms, Ino jumped back, flinging the shuriken at the chunin, who blocked them easily, and pulled out a kunai of her own. The two women charged at each other, Ino marveled at how she was much faster than the other woman, ducking under the blade and jamming the kunai into the woman's stomach. She jumped away and watched as the girl slowly bled out, saddened by the loss of another Konoha shinobi.

* * *

Kurenai used her genjutsu on the five ninja who attacked her after the initial stupor had ceased. And she smiled at the thought of what the chunin were seeing.

The chunin were utterly horrified. Their loved ones were rising out of the ground, looking like corpses, and they were grabbing at their ankles, trying to drag them into fresh graves with their names on them.

Kurenai walked over to the blank faced chunin and quickly slit their throats, breaking the genjutsu. She went one at a time, silently killing them, she had killed three when she felt her genjutsu break, and suddenly she was fighting two angry chunin. She tried another genjutsu, this one broken within seconds.

She hissed as a kunai cut through her arm, she pulled out one of her own and switched directions, changing from defense to offense in the blink of an eye, her red eyes scanning for any weakness in the chunin's movements.

There! He stepped too far to the right, throwing him off balance; she kicked his leg out from under him and plunged her kunai into his eye, feeling the skull crack as it entered his brain.

She pulled at the kunai, it came out with a sickening squelching sound; she turned to the other ninja. He pulled a katana off of his back and settled into a defensive stance. She had been watching this one too and had discovered that he had a slower reaction time than his friend. She threw her kunai at him and followed after it, pulling out another kunai as she ran.

He seen the kunai and brought his sword up to block it, but failed to notice Kurenai until her kunai was shoved diagonally into his chest, slipping through the ribcage, through a lung and into his heart.

She jumped back and was met with silence, no more ninja attacked her; they were busy elsewhere.

* * *

Kiba and Akamaru tore through a poor ninja using Fang Over Fang. The ninja's companions stepped back; doing all they could to dodge the two mini tornadoes as they flew towards them. They jumped out of the way and launched a hail of projectiles at their two adversaries.

Kiba landed and felt the pain of six shuriken slice into his back. He grunted and looked over at Akamaru; he hadn't fared any better.

"All right, you guys are gonna pay for hurting my dog. Ya got that?" he said with a pained grin on his face. "Let's see how ya like this."

He pulled out several shuriken and kunai, tossing a handful to Akamaru, who caught them without looking. Both settled into the beginning stance for Fang Over Fang and launched at their opponents.

The six chunin jumped out of the way and all but one cried out as the projectiles shot out of the two tornadoes; slicing one to ribbons and mortally wounding another. That left four enemies.

Those four ninja quickly made several hand signs and shot streams of flame at the two.

* * *

Shikamaru was bored. The looked up. It was too early for clouds, he sighed and looked at the six ninja he had with his Shadow Possession Jutsu. He sighed and pulled out two kunai, watching as they each did the same, half hoping that at least one of them would break the jutsu; he had seventy eight moves planned ahead.

He waited for a few seconds, and when none of them broke it, he aimed and tossed his kunai. The chunin screamed as they killed their allies, all falling dead in front of him.

"Well, that was a drag." He said as he brushed a bit of non existent dust off of his vest.

* * *

Kiba laughed as he dodged a punch from one of the chunin. He had forsaken his family's jutsus for a direct attack. He pulled out a kunai and flicked it lazily at his current opponent. The woman blocked it with her own and was immediately put on the ground by a debilitating punch to the stomach. She gasped as all the air in her lungs was pushed out. Kiba grinned and drove his elbow into the base of her neck, severing the spinal cord and breaking her neck at the same time. She convulsed on the ground; then was still, Kiba looked up at his three remaining foes.

"Kind of scary to see what brute force can do isn't it?" he asked nonchalantly. "But I specialize in brute force, so the way I see it, the only way I might go down, is if you all attack at the same time, now, I said that I _might_ go down, but if I do I'm taking at least two of you rats with me, so what's it gonna be?"

"Fuck that." One of the chunin said. "We're Konoha shinobi, we fight with honor, and there is no honor in taking out a ninja three to one."

"We're ninja kid, we fight like that, now I'd take my advice, it might be you that lives."

"We're not falling for that, you just want us in the same spot so you can use that jutsu of yours on us." He said, his allies nodding dumbly. He settled into a rough stance. "I'll take you on first." He said.

Kiba grinned at his opponent's enthusiasm. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn ya."

Kiba launched himself at the man, kunai in hand. The man brought up his own kunai to block, but was too slow, and he felt the two blades enter his arms, sinking all the way to the bone, and then through it. The man screamed, and was silenced by a kunai sliding across his throat. He stared wide eyed as Kiba looked into the face of his victim, not blinking until the chunin had drowned in his own blood.

The other three blinked stupidly as their friend fell to the ground. It took them almost three seconds before they realized that he had been killed, and began to pull out their own weapons to defend against an attack; but by that time Kiba had already launched himself at them, impaling one on the end of his Anbu sword as the chunin pulled out a kunai, Kiba swung his sword and sent the dead man flying towards his comrades and followed it soon after.

The next target was able to pull out a kunai in time to stop the sword. The two enemies began a blindingly fast dance of metal and flesh, Kiba cutting the man to ribbons as the chunin tried in vain to block, soon the man fell, paralyzed as his life ran out of hundreds of cuts in red streams; he thrusted his kunai forward weakly and cried in dismay as Kiba easily batted it aside.

"Just die, don't put yourself through any more pain." He said as he brought his sword down.

By this time the other two had decided to team up and try to take Kiba down. He laughed as the two tried in vain to attack him. He blocked a punch and whistled for Akamaru, who had been lying on his side as if injured. The dog barked and jumped up, sinking his teeth into the arm of one of the chunin, Kiba lazily threw his sword in the general direction of the two and kicked the other chunin in the head; following his kick with a kunai through his side, and into both a lung and his heart.

Kiba walked over and retrieved his sword from the chest of the ninja Akamaru had held onto, he wiped the blood on his pant leg and sheathed his sword. Giving a small 'humph' at the obvious lack of training his opponents had received. He turned to observe the remainder of his allies as they grappled with their own enemies.

* * *

Tenten, Anko, Tsume and Hana, including the dogs of the two Inuzuka, were surrounded. They had been careless and let the eighteen chunin herd them together and pin them. Now they stood in a circle, each blocking some of the deadly rain of shuriken and kunai thrown at them, the four and the dogs were struck by several within a few minutes and it only took another few before they mentally readied themselves for death.

It never came.

The chunin stopped throwing projectiles and began to flow through hand signs at lightening speeds.

But the jutsu was never unleashed.

Spears made from sand shot through the unsuspecting chunin. Their bodies were dragged into a massive ball and crushed, and then the sand fell back to the earth, drenched in blood.

The ninja heard footsteps from behind them and turned to find Gaara standing a few feet from them, a smile on his face.

"I thought I'd go for a walk on this lovely night, but I guess it hasn't been so beautiful here has it?" he said.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in; if you're looking for Naruto, he's over there." Anko said exuberantly.

Gaara nodded. "And the formula?" he asked cautiously.

"Naruto ordered Sakura to destroy the sample." Hana replied.

"Good; I guess I'll go see how my friend is doing on his end." And with that he disappeared in a swirl of sand; heading toward the other side of the hospital where loud crashing noises could be heard.

* * *

Naruto slammed Hinata against the wall, sending a spider web of cracks running along its length for a few feet. She coughed as he drove his knee into her gut; then fell to her knees as he stepped back.

"I expected more Hinata." Naruto said fiercely. " You are the pinnacle of the Hyuga clan now, I watched as they trained you in all of their arts, I help you progress until Neji looked like a weak genin compared to you, yet here you stand, on your knees in front of the dead last out of the rookie nine, stand up and fight like a Hyuga, I want to kill you with honor, and some mercy, because you'll be begging for death by the time I'm through with you!"

Hinata's eyes hardened. "You dare mock me!" she yelled as she struck out at him. He pushed her arm aside and struck her in the side.

"Yes, I do, what are you going to do about it?" he asked, a malicious grin on his face. "Right now you are quite powerless. I have never seen such a weak ninja. Get up so I can knock you down again."

Hinata stood. "Why do you torture me so Naruto? I have nothing but love for you, yet you are trying to kill me, why?"

Naruto looked at her impassively; staring for a moment before speaking. "You harmed Ino, I will not have it, and you threatened to harm her again, and for that I will kill you."

A lilting voice traveled from a few feet away. "No, let me do it." And then Ino was standing in between Hinata and Naruto.

Hinata smiled. "So I finally get a good crack at the bitch that took you from me, Naruto, my luck couldn't get any better."

Ino scowled at Hinata, she shifted her head slightly, never taking her eyes off of the other woman. "Naruto, I need to do this, don't interfere…I…I love you, I just wanted you to know that."

"I know, don't get hurt, I…I wouldn't know what to do without you."

Ino smiled. "Don't worry so much, I got this in the bag, this bitch won't know what hit her.

The two women prepared to face off.

* * *

Ino launched herself forward, taking Hinata by surprise. Before Hinata had the chance to retaliate, she had been decked square in the jaw. She slid back a couple feet and then launched an attack of her own. Ino blocked with her left arm and felt a stinging sensation, telling her that Hinata had just closed a chakra point. She growled and struck at Hinata with her right arm, sinking her fist into Hinata's stomach.

Hinata gasped and tried to regain her breath, but Ino was already upon her, punching every available spot. Hinata quickly spun around and took out the other woman's legs with a sweep of her left leg. She coughed, spitting out a mixture of saliva and blood.

Hinata assessed her situation. She had a broken rib that was piercing her lung, that she knew, and she knew enough medical ninjutsu to help her fight even with such an injury. But she was dying, that was a simple fact, her body wouldn't hold out much longer and she was going to give all of her strength to the purpose of destroying Ino, but how?

Ino was not only stronger than her now, but also faster, and unafraid of her taijutsu, she still had her special technique and also those of the clan, but with Ino's newfound skill, using them would be a problem. She narrowed her eyes, this wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

Across the field Ino was also assessing her own situation. Her left arm was almost useless; her body was hurting from receiving several hits from the Gentle Fist; and she still had to contend with the Hyuga's techniques, which she knew Hinata would be using soon. Not pretty.

She looked at Hinata closely. She knew the woman had a broken rib; that much she could tell, and the fact that she was coughing up blood suggested that the rib had punctured a lung. So Hinata must be weakening. Ino could use this to her advantage. But this wouldn't be easy.

* * *

The two rocketed at each other again, hammering each other in the face; Ino and Hinata both flew backwards a few feet, they had barely stopped moving before they collided again, this time Ino was the one to land a hit, driving her fist into Hinata's side as she swerved to avoid Hinata's attack. Hinata coughed spewing a little bit of blood on Ino. Ino shot sideways as a fist collided with the side of her head. Hinata fell to her knees, then stood shakily.

"I won't be beaten by you, not today." She said as she settled into her taijutsu stance again.

Ino got up a little bit more securely than Hinata and replied. "Really, I'm not the one dying her now am I?"

"You will be in a few moments, you're in range of my…" she didn't finish her sentence as Ino shot forward and delivered a powerful blow to her head.

"In a few moments…" Ino began, sinking her hidden kunai into Hinata's chest, Hinata gasped. Ino ripped out the kunai and was covered by a spray of blood; she stood and peered into Hinata's eyes. "…You'll be dead, good-bye Hinata Hyuga."

Hinata died staring at the blood drenched woman in front of her, who stared back with cold hatred, the last thought in Hinata's mind was. _I truly, I truly fear this woman, and I curse her, I curse her with losing everything she loves, the same curse that plagued me…_And Hinata Hyuga passed on.

* * *

Gaara viewed the city with disdain. After coming just in time to watch Ino drive a kunai into Hinata, he had dragged Naruto to his office, where they stood now.

"The city is in shambles, not that we didn't predict this attack, thanks to your little secret." Gaara said wretchedly.

"I know it's my fault, but don't worry, I have several hundred Shadow Clones working on repairs. It's a good thing I forwarded all my money to the bank here in Suna; we'd really be in trouble if I hadn't, this is costing a fortune to do." Naruto said with a small smile.

"How you were able to hide so much money in my own village right under my nose without me knowing I'll never know." Gaara replied stoically.

Naruto's smile became genuine." It wasn't hard, I just told the bank members you knew and approved, they didn't ask questions and were very willing to help."

"Well yeah, you are considered a hero here Naruto."

"Hmm, I wonder why that is."

"You really are clueless." Ino said from the doorway.

Naruto frowned at her. "What's that supposed to mean huh?" he asked.

"Exactly what I said. You. Are. Clueless." Ino replied with a mischievous smile. Then she got serious. "Come on, it's starting and you'll be late."

"Aww crap! I gotta go; see you later Gaara!" Naruto said as he rushed out the door.

Ino sighed, then smiled sweetly at Gaara, saying. "Bye bye now." And she too, was off like a rocket.

Gaara blinked; then took a deep breath. He waited a few seconds and was still met with silence.

Life was going to return to normal in Suna.

As normal as it could get with Naruto around.

* * *

Naruto and Ino rushed down the city streets, moving as fast as possible through the crowd, they arrived at the gate to see a very bored Kiba sitting on Akamaru, and a calm and haughty Neji, with a grin on his face, waiting for them.

"Are you ready Lady Ino?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, the blockhead…"

"Hey!"

"…Was talking with Gaara, and I'm pretty sure he forgot about us until I showed up, sorry I'm late!" Ino said, ignoring the glare from Naruto.

"Well at least you have someone to blame it on Lady Ino." Kiba said brightly.

"Ha ha; very funny guys." Naruto said coldly. "But I also congratulate you for being the three chosen for our first A-rank mission!" he said happily. "Understand that Ino will be leading this, her orders are my own, Take care and go do…whatever the mission was again!"

Ino sighed. "We're guarding the Wind Daimyo as he travels from his castle to his summer estate Naruto, didn't you read the copy I gave you before you chose the team?"

"Um, if I said yes would you believe me?" he asked.

"No." his three subordinates said in unison.

"You have no faith in me."

"Hey Naruto." Ino said.

"What?"

"I love you." She said as she hugged him, he hugged her tighter.

"I know."

She stepped back, a hurt look on her face. "Would it hurt to just say it, Dam you!" she said to him before taking off, leaving her teammates to catch up to her, and a very sad Naruto standing by the gate, watching her get smaller and smaller until she had completely disappeared.

* * *

Night, A Day Later.

Naruto tossed and turned. His dream was amazingly vivid and horrifying.

_Ino stood in front of the daimyo's carriage. She was breathing heavy and had a large gash down her right arm; the kunai in her left hand was shaking. She was surrounded by ninja. Neji, Kiba and Akimaru were at her feet unconscious._

"_Come on girlie, drop the knife and don't do anything funny." One of them said a sword in his hand._

_Ino readied her weapon for defense. "I won't let you get the Daimyo." She said icily._

"_Oh but it's not the Daimyo I want my pretty." A sickly sweet voice said from behind the ninja. The ninja parted and there stood Orochimaru with a sick smile on his face._

"_IT'S YOU!"_

Naruto woke with a jolt.

"I gotta tell Gaara." He said out loud as he quickly dressed and ran to the Kazekage Tower, where he knew his friend would be working.

The night seemed to laugh at him as he ran.

* * *

The Day Before, an Hour After Leaving Suna.

Ino sighed, it was hot, too hot, so hot poor Akimaru sounded like a steam train. So hot when you opened your flask, half the water rose out as steam and the rest was boiling.

Well maybe not that hot, but it was still pretty warm out there.

"Oh my god it's hot!" She said.

"We're almost to the rendezvous point, just stay calm." Neji said.

"Easy for you to say, your attitude is all the ice you're ever gonna need." She replied, causing Kiba to laugh heartily. "And look at poor Akimaru, he's about to die out here! This place is horrible! My hair is bleaching as we speak; my skin's all dry..."

her two teammates stood behind her as she ranted away; Kiba leaned over and whispered to Neji.

"Is she suffering from dehydration or do we have something to worry about?"

Neji sighed, standing there with his eyes closed for a minute, then he opened them, revealing the Byakugan, he studied her for a few minutes; then.

"No, I think she's gone bonkers."

"HEY, I HEARD THAT!"

Neji ducked as her drinking flask sailed his way, avoiding it, but leaving poor Kiba to take it to the face.

Kiba flew backwards, landing unceremoniously on his butt with a grunt, he jumped into the air.

"My face! My face! That canteen is fucking HOT!!" he screamed, running around in circles.

"Aw get over it." Ino said as she turned away.

Kiba leaned back over to Neji. "D'you think she's acting like this because of what Naruto said earlier?"

He didn't see her fist coming and it collided with the back of his head at high speed. She turned away, her false good mood completely gone.

"Shut up and get moving." was all she said the rest of the way to the rendezvous point, and all the next day.

She sat by the fire while her companions made camp, staring into the flames. Suddenly a commotion broke out behind her. She flipped around and drove a kunai into a ninja's chest. Spinning, she grabbed one of the pokers that had been in the fire and turned towards her enemies.

There were seven of them, and three of them held swords, the rest eyed her poker and pulled out kunai. All of them bore the symbol of the Hidden Leaf. She growled and got into a rough stance, she had never been good with weapons; that was Tenten's style, she focused more on jutsu, but with their backs to the Daimyo's carriage, she couldn't unleash any of them.

She readied her poker and charged forward, using the chunk of red hot metal to pierce the shoulder of one of the men, she pushed with all her might until it was sunk to the handle, much to the displeasure of the man receiving the wound. He screamed as the poker went through his body. She twisted the poker and ripped it out of him from the side, causing the man to wail in agony, before flinging the side prong of the poker into the temple of another, but she was careless and one of the men with a sword slashed at her arm, leaving a large gash., she twirled the hot poker and drove it into his stomach, leaving it there and pulling out a kunai. She threw it with all her might and watched as it went through the head of one of the ninja. There were three ninja left, she grunted; her arm hurt horribly, but she blocked out the pain and dashed through the group to get to her teammates, whom she could hear engaged in battle at the head of the carriage, but was blocked from view by a tent, she jumped and landed nimbly beside Kiba.

Kiba, Neji, and Akamaru were getting their asses handed to them. The three had come from the other side of the carriage and were quickly corralled; only after all routes of escape were closed off did the beating commence.

Ino landed in the middle of that.

She sighed and pulled out another kunai, holding it in her left hand as her right hand was useless at the moment. She was prepared to attack when all the enemy ninja became deathly quiet.

Suddenly an object shot from the group of ninja and collided with Kiba's head. Ino gasped as another brought Neji down, Akamaru growled and jumped in the direction of the objects, which turned out to be the same object, a large round ball attached to a chain, being wielded by a giant.

The giant lashed out with his weapon again and succeeded in nailing Akamaru. The dog fell and then Ino was alone. She readied herself to face the chain, but it was not forthcoming.

"Come on girlie, drop the knife and don't do anything funny." One of the ninja said, readying his sword.

She narrowed her eyes and readied her own weapon. "I won't let you get the Daimyo." She said, putting as much ice and hatred in her voice as possible.

"Oh but it's not the Daimyo I want my pretty." Said a voice she had only heard in the memories of a man she had controlled, a sickly sweet drawl that sent shivers down her spine.

The Konoha ninja parted and a lone figure stepped forward, his golden eyes shining. Standing in front of her was none other than the most hated ninja ever to leave Konoha, Orochimaru.

Orochimaru smiled then pointed at her. "IT'S YOU!"

Now the ball came flying in and everything went black.

* * *

A chair flew out of the window; thrown by a very irate Naruto.

"Gaara, they fucking TOOK HER!!!!!"

Gaara stood. "Naruto, explain. You just burst into my office and throw my best chair out the window, then scream that someone took her, I pray it's not about Ino."

Naruto stopped thrashing around and turned to him.

"Orochimaru. He ambushed the group with a large force of Leaf shinobi. He took Ino, they have her…" Naruto broke down and started sobbing. His friend went over and helped the distraught man to his feet.

"Naruto, something will be done about this, this was a direct assault on the Daimyo and his men, as I'm sure several died in that attack, the Sand will now wage open war with Konoha. This also gives us the perfect chance to get her back. We need to speak to the Council about this first, since they won't let me declare war without their consent. They're already pissed at you enough for the incident with Stone."

"Fine, let's go." Naruto said as he dragged Gaara to the Councilors Chamber.

* * *

"No."

Naruto stared at the councilors incredulously. "What?" he asked.

"We won't let you take our soldiers on some harebrained adventure to bring back someone who could be dead."

"She is not dead." Naruto said.

"I see, what is your reason for wanting to bring her back?" one of the councilors asked.

"She's one of _my _soldiers." Naruto replied.

"I sense it is more than that, tell us your reason for wanting to find her."

"No."

"Naruto." Gaara's voice silenced the murmurs in the room. "Just give them what they want."

Naruto stood. "Fine! You want the reason, I'll give you the goddamned reason! I fucking love her, understand?! I lo…" Naruto grabbed his chest and collapsed.

Gaara jumped out of his seat and ran to his friend.

"Naruto!" he shouted, crouching by his friend. Naruto's eyes were closed.

"He's had a heart attack! Get a medic!" one of the councilors said anxiously.

Naruto's eyes shot open, and he began screaming as his shirt caught fire, the flame seeping from his chest, directly above his heart.

Gaara jumped back. He turned to his men. "Get Sakura, quickly!" he said.

* * *

Sakura arrived to the scene a few minutes later.

"What the hell! Who set him on fire?" she yelled as she began putting out the flames with a small water jutsu before inspecting him.

"No one did, he burst into flames on his own." Gaara said shakily.

"Oh no, the seal is broken! Get him to the hospital fast! He's going to go into cardiac arrest!" she said commandingly. A group of Sand medics rushed in with a stretcher and picked up the now silent blond.

Naruto was rushed to the hospital and was in a coma for three days.

* * *

Morning of the Fourth Day.

Naruto's head was swimming, where was he? He could hear people calling to him, and then he remembered.

"INO!!!" he screamed as he shot out of bed. Startling a sleeping Sakura into wakefulness.

"Nar-to? D'you have ta yell like that in-tha mornin'?" she grumbled, before looking into his face and nearly jumping out of her skin. "N-Naruto, your eyes!" she managed to say.

"What?" he asked, then rushed into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. His face looked the same, all except for his eyes.

His eyes were glacier blue.

He gasped and stepped back, and as he did so laughing filled his ears.

"W-what? Who's laughing?" he said looking around.

"Naruto, no one's laughing, it's just you and me." Sakura said confusedly.

"But I swear…"

**It was me boy! I'm glad we can finally speak again, it's been too long! Ha ha ha ha! **

"Oh God no."

* * *

And there is chapter ten, didya like it, I did, it was fun to write, but I'm a bit pooped, so expect the next one out when I take off Metal. Bye-bye now!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Hey, I hope you liked the last chapter; I did. Now I don't have much to say other that enjoy another chapter from my sick twisted mind.

This chapter will be the darkest chapter I've ever written, so expect no happy feelings from this one. Unless you're a sadist, then my advice is don't cream in your pants. Okay, that's kind of a lie. There's not really that much a sadist would like in this story. But be warned, there is a Lemon, just not the kind most people would hope for, yeah, you'll find out. I bet big money that several stop reading the story after this but what the hell. On with the show!

* * *

Ino woke up and opened her eyes. Dark. Black. The way it had been for the past couple of days. At least, she thought it had been days. You can't tell time in a hell hole like this. She still felt the sting from her 'counseling', as Orochimaru liked to call it. The sick bastard. She guessed it had only been hours since he tortured her to get information. Much to her satisfaction, she still hadn't told him anything he wanted to know.

The door to her cell opened, and she squinted at the light, in entered the man that had been her living nightmare ever since she was captured.

"Come now," Orochimaru hissed when he seen the hate filled glare she shot in his direction. "I think by now you'd understand that your _rebellious_ tactics will get you nowhere, my young Ino, tell me what I need to know and the rest of the day will be _less_ painful than intended."

She spat in his face. "Go to Hell!" she said venomously.

"Oh, but I've already been there, and I would rather stay and play here for a while, I shall love to see my pupil again, I wonder how he's doing… hmmm. Well no more of that, now it's time to make you cooperate."

Searing pain shot through her arm as a thin knife sliced deep, carving a long, deep gash down it. She flinched, but kept staring into the yellow eyes of her captor. Orochimaru smiled, and then made another trail down her arm, moving slowly; hours passed with nothing but her, the knife, and Orochimaru. Finally he pulled the knife away, leaving her arm looking like hamburger meat from all the cuts, horizontal, diagonal, and vertical. He stepped back, smile still plastered on his face.

"Well, if physical pain doesn't work, maybe I'll try mental." He snapped his fingers and a man walked into the room. Orochimaru turned to the man with a sick smile. "Do what you want, the rest of today is yours." He said to the man.

The man smiled. "My _pleasure._"He said, unzipping his pants as Orochimaru left the room.

Ino screamed as the man began his ministrations.

* * *

Ino woke again. This time because of the pain in her back where the man had thrown her like a rag doll. She looked up to see light shining through the doorway, and the silhouette of the man who held her captive and the man who had used her body like a toy. She tried to fight as the man began again, but lack of food and blood loss made her too weak. She lashed out with a weak kick as he lifted her skirt. The man easily deflected and readied himself for entry.

Orochimaru smiled the whole time.

* * *

A bucket of water bumping against her head woke her the next morning, splashing half of its contents on her face. She watched weakly as a pitiful plate of food was set down beside her, the bucket was still half full, but she drank sparingly, and ate ravenously, she didn't know when she'd eat or drink again.

All she knew was that her torture didn't come that day.

* * *

The door opened and a frail young woman walked in. The woman made a few hand signs in the dark and began healing Ino's wounded arm. She kept quiet, knowing that punishment would come if Lord Orochimaru knew that she was healing his prisoner. She finished and checked the watch on her wrist, Ino's food and water was to come in fifteen minutes, she left quietly, without waking the woman and went swiftly to the kitchens to fetch Ino's food and water. Upon returning, she tossed the bucket at the girl, rousing her; she then sat the plate of food down and left.

But Ino had seen enough, the eyes gave it away.

She had been looking at none other than Hinata's little sister Hanabi.

Hanabi was a slave of Orochimaru!

* * *

The door banged open and in walked Orochimaru, with Hanabi in tow this time. Orochimaru turned his evil yellow eyes to Ino.

"Well, are you ready to give me what I want?" he asked sweetly, but there was an underlying threat in his words.

"Go fuck yourself!" she growled, earning a slap across the face. She spat out a glob of blood and glared at him, her hate for the man saturating the air around them. Hanabi shuffled her feet.

Orochimaru turned to his servant and nodded. He turned back to Ino and began speaking.

"I believe you've met Hanabi, the younger sister of Hinata Hyuga. Well, she is now my servant and the keeper of your cell, so be nice to her, and maybe she'll only forget to feed you once or twice a week. Now, she's just going to block your chakra. It's quite painful, I'm told, so prepare for quite a bit of stinging."

Hanabi shot forward and quickly poked sixty-four spots on Ino's body; effectively blocking the woman's chakra. Ino gasped in pain but didn't tear her hate filled eyes from the evil yellow ones of the man who held her prisoner.

"Your normal appointment with your _friend_ will begin again tomorrow." Orochimaru said; signaling Hanabi to follow, they both left the cell.

Ino fought hard to stand until they left, then she collapsed on the floor like a sack of potatoes, unconscious.

* * *

She woke up to the white eyes of Hanabi. As soon as Hanabi had seen Ino's eyes open, she had placed her hand gently over Ino's mouth. Ino looked at the young woman quizzically.

"Shhhh. The guards outside your cell are asleep. If they wake, it's both our heads." Hanabi said quietly.

"W-where…where am I?" Ino asked in a faint whisper.

Hanabi smiled. "Your guess is as good as mine, I was blindfolded the whole journey, but my guess is we're somewhere in Rice, in one of Orochimaru's old bases. But don't worry; your friends will be here soon. I know it."

"They won't come." Ino said quietly. "I hope they don't."

Hanabi looked shocked. "What!? Do you like being raped daily! What's wrong with you?" she hissed.

Ino looked at her. "If they come, they'll die; I hope they have the brains to stay away. I'm no good to them, they have a mission and they'd better see it out till the end." She whispered back.

Hanabi slapped her across the face. "Don't start talking like that!" she hissed. "You talk as if you're worthless, your friends will come after you, especially Naruto; it's their way."

"Why are you helping me?" Ino asked her wearily. "I've taken from you."

Hanabi cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

"It was I that dealt death to your sister." Ino said sadly.

Hanabi clasped her heart and stepped back, a single tear falling from her eyes. "I…I didn't know she was dead, I've been down here so long, but…I really should thank you."

"What!?"

"She is the one who gave me to Orochimaru. I am to be his next vessel now that he's returned to life. She was insane near the end; I should thank you for setting her free." Hanabi said; bowing to Ino.

Ino smiled then. "Well then, when Naruto comes to get me, we'll get you out of here too."

Hanabi instantly brightened. "Really!? Oh, thank you, thank you!" she said.

The two girls talked for a while more before Hanabi left. Ino lay down to sleep feeling lighter in her heart.

* * *

Ino felt a hand grab her by the hair and drag her out into the corridor. She was beaten senseless and then blindfolded, forced to stand and marched deep into the base.

"Hurr, cumm naow missie, tuh Lord Orochimaru we be takin' yeh, so you best be noice'n'quoiet naow, I don' wunna hav tuh hurt yeh, no marm." Said a deep, rustic voice from behind her. She lashed out with a kick in that direction.

"Hurr, naow missie." Another voice said beside her. "You'm best be caln an' no mur kickin' outa you, oid hate tuh hav to deal with old scaleyface if'n usn's hav'n tuh hurt ya, no zurr."

"You'm roight brother'o'mine. Naow letz get 'er tuh Lord Orochimaru'n'no mis'aps naow." The voice of the man holding her replied.

She was dragged to the center of the base to a huge antechamber, where Orochimaru sat in a large chair in the center of the room. He smiled.

"Ahh." He said sweetly. "So you've met my servants, the Brothers Tsumaranai. Not very bright, but loyal and strong, now come, sit with me." He said beckoning the woman to a chair next to his. She made no move toward it and was forced to sitting by the brothers behind her.

"What do you want, Snake?" she spat venomously at him as she straightened back up.

He smiled; then turned to the brothers. "Leave us."

Both bowed. "Yez zurr." They said as they left.

Orochimaru turned back to the woman. "Now Ino, we're alone, and I have sat for many a day trying to find a way to get the information that I need from you. I think I have come up with a solution that profits both of us."

"Aw, go boil your head." She said.

"I will return something of great value to you, and release you, if you give me the information I need." He began.

"You have nothing I want." She replied

"I can bring back Choji and Inoichi." He said flatly.

* * *

Naruto's head was swimming, where was he? He could hear people calling to him, and then he remembered.

"INO!!!" he screamed as he shot out of bed. Startling a sleeping Sakura into wakefulness.

"Nar-to? D'you have ta yell like that in-tha mornin'?" she grumbled, before looking into his face and nearly jumping out of her skin. "N-Naruto, your eyes!" she managed to say.

"What?" he asked, then rushed into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. His face looked the same, all except for his eyes.

His eyes were glacier blue.

He gasped and stepped back, and as he did so laughing filled his ears.

"W-what? Who's laughing?" he said looking around.

"Naruto, no one's laughing, it's just you and me." Sakura said confusedly.

"But I swear…"

**It was me boy! I'm glad we can finally speak again, it's been too long! Ha ha ha ha! **

"Oh God no."

* * *

Naruto stood in the Council chambers once again, this time he didn't even make a noise when the decision was announced.

"We have voted not to wage war on Konohagakure." The Head councilman said.

Naruto nodded. "We have overstayed our welcome. Tomorrow I will remove myself and The Revolution, since the village we have been established at is no longer willing to aid us."

Gaara stepped forward. "And I will go with him, along with my siblings and any ninja that does not believe the evil taint of Konoha should be endured."

The Head councilman stood. "But you are our Kazekage, we need you here…"

"From this moment forth, I resign, let it be known that you are no longer under the protection of Gaara of the Sand." Gaara said flatly, getting gasps of shock from all but the Head councilman, who looked upon the sight with a smile, proof that he was one of the older council; the one Gaara's father had used.

"You will be executed as a rogue ninja if you leave, as will be any that follow you." The Head councilman warned with an almost gleeful tone.

"That is the risk I will have to take, as will any man or woman with justice in their hearts." Gaara replied.

* * *

Naruto and Gaara sat in Gaara's house later that night. Gaara's family had left to spread the word of Gaara's departure around the city; hoping to rally the ninja to Gaara's side. Naruto sat on the couch while Gaara occupied an armchair across from him. Gaara leaned his head back, staring at the ceiling. He sat there for a few minutes before he spoke.

"Naruto."

"Yeah Gaara, what is it?"

"I want to know where we're going, I'm giving up all I have to go and fight with you, so I have a right to know before I lead myself and any followers I might have with you." Gaara said, still staring at the ceiling.

Naruto smiled at his friend. "Gaara, I'll tell you exactly where we're heading, I was going to announce it to everyone tomorrow, but I bet you want to do that yourself. We're going to be heading to Iwa as soon as the sun rises.

"Iwa? You mean to establish The Revolution there? You know as well as I do that Iwa is not to be completely trusted." Gaara said, staring at his friend in a somewhat scolding manner. "You mean to entrust the lives of your ninja, and mine as well, to the biggest threat we have."

"They are our allies, not a threat, but an opportunity, once The Revolution controls Konoha, we will establish peace with them, so are you with me or not."

Gaara sighed. "I'm with you till the end, my friend."

"Then let us sleep, tomorrow will be long and tiring."

The two retired; leaving the living room empty; awaiting the arrival of Kankuro and Temari.

* * *

Morning came to find almost five hundred ninja at the gates of the city. The Council had ordered the remaining ninja to stop anyone from leaving. Those ninja who chose to stay had locked themselves in their houses, not heeding the Council's order. Gaara was amazed at the large mass of ninja that were about to give everything they had to fight alongside him.

"I'll bet we could take on Konoha's forces with this lot here." Kankuro said to Naruto.

Naruto smiled at him. "Patience, Kankuro; the Konoha ninja number almost double what we have here, jounin, chunin, and genin. We have mostly chunin; but, if we stay in Iwa and build up our strength, then we'll be unstoppable." He said over his shoulder at the puppeteer.

At the mention of Iwa, Kankuro's smile turned into a frown. "I still can't believe you're dragging us to live with a bunch of rock heads like them, hell, I'm not gonna get any sleep 'cause I'm afraid one of 'em will stab me while I'm in bed."

"If they kill ya while you're asleep, it's only 'cause they caught ya with their wife." Temari put in.

"Probably." Gaara agreed.

An hour later seen the large group on the dune north of Suna, only Gaara looked back, Naruto walked up beside him and put his hand on Gaara's shoulder. Gaara turned to his friend. "So ends my friendship and love for Sunagakure." Gaara said sadly, his head bowed. "The next time I return, might just be to destroy it."

"No." Naruto said. "This is not the end of your love for this city, as I left Konoha, with intent to save it; you leave Suna, the same intent driving you onward. You will be back, if not to take back your title, to relieve that title of someone who is not worthy and give it to someone who is."

"You don't plan to become Hokage?" Gaara asked him.

Naruto smiled, and then turned his glacier blue eyes skyward. "No Gaara, I don't plan to take the title of Hokage, but I do plan on giving it to someone who deserves it."

Realization spread across Gaara's face, then a picture of heavy sorrow. "I see."

"Yes, but not now, not for a while, but eventually, yes."

The two turned and led the small army north, heading for Iwagakure.

* * *

Ino stared at Orochimaru in disbelief. "N-No, I-I don't believe you! You can't bring them back! You're nothing but a liar and a snake!" she shouted at him.

He smiled. "Oh, but I can, using the jutsu Edo Tensei, how do you think I am back in the mortal world, I was dead, and the power of Edo Tensei revived me! I will give you your loved ones back if you give me Naruto's whereabouts, where would he go if he left Suna, I need to know!" he shouted.

"No." Ino said. "No, no, no, no, NO!" Ino jumped out of the chair and began running. She got as far as the door when the two brutes from earlier appeared. One swipe from the larger one sent her into the blackness that was unconsciousness.

* * *

Ino woke up chained in her cell. She laughed weakly and took a sip from a fresh bucket of water. Then she lay down to rest her aching head.

A blinding light stirred her not long afterward, and Orochimaru entered.

"Well, have you thought on my offer yet?"

"Go to hell!"

He laughed. "So we're back to this eh. Fine, I'll bring in your friend." The man entered and hell began again.

* * *

She had been beaten into unconsciousness, but eventually Hanabi was able to rouse her.

"I don't think they're coming Hanabi." She said as Hanabi healed various cuts and bruises on her body. "I think I'm meant to die here."

Hanabi pursed her lips. "Don't say things like that Ino. Your friends will come, we just have to be patient."

"I'm weak now. I have nothing left in me, if what Orochimaru says is true, then I have no idea what I'll do." Ino said quietly.

"What did he say?"

'He said he can bring the dead back to life." Ino answered quietly. "I don't think he can, it's a lie…it has to be a lie."

"…He can do it, I watched…" Hanabi trailed off.

"W-what?"

"The Brothers Tsumaranai; he used a jutsu called Edo Tensei to revive them yesterday, he can bring back the dead."

* * *

Ino sat in silence, at least on the outside; but, on the inside she was smothered in noise. Could she betray Naruto, a man she had easily fallen in love with, but was it really love, or just an attraction, lust perhaps, she didn't know. But she could throw away the life she had now and get back her father and Choji. Both loved her, and she loved them, a tear fell from her eye as she thought of her fiancé, how he would always smile and laugh, how he always knew what to say when she needed to hear something. And another fell as she thought of all the talks, the life lessons, the words of encouragement, everything her father had given her over the years.

Everything was just too enormous, she couldn't handle it. Why did everything bad always happen to her?

The door flew open to reveal the man that had haunted her for the past several days. He had an evil grin on his face as he walked in, the man who had become her living torture following behind like a dog.

"So..." Orochimaru started, his yellow eyes piercing into her. "What is your decision?"

"I-I…I won't help you." Ino said shakily. "Not for that."

"Oh, well then we can strike a deal. You give me the one thing I want, and I will give you your loved ones."

Ino glared at him. "And what is it you want."

* * *

Ino stood in front of Orochimaru, thinking over the terms. She stayed that way for a few minutes before looking up.

"I'll do it." She said finally.

Orochimaru smiled. "good." He said before turning to his lackey. "Do what you will."

The man smiled and backhanded Ino across the face. Ino went sprawling and before she could do anything, the man was on top of her. She tried to wiggle free as he took off his pants, but was met with a fist to the side of her head, effectively stunning her.

The man spread her legs apart and slowly prepared himself for entry. She regained her senses and tried to fight, but was backhanded again, then, in a sickening moment, she felt his member slide into her and she lost all hope of fighting. She sat there whimpering as he thrusted in once more, choking her as he did so. His finger strayed over her mouth and she bit down as hard as she could.

The man yelped and pulled his hand away, staring at the sore digit for a moment before balling up his fist and socking her square in the jaw. Thrusting in as he did so. She gave a cry of pain and lashed out again, trying her hardest to get the man off her.

Again and again she lashed out, hoping to rid herself of the man that was desecrating her body, and again and again he hit back, forcing her into submission again and again; thrusting in and out all the while.

An hour passed, then two, and three hours had passed before he was finally sated. Removing himself from her body, he kicked her hard in the stomach, causing her to curl into a ball. She stayed like that until she cried herself to sleep for the umpteenth time in her brutal imprisonment.

* * *

A ball of blinding light woke her up, and she opened her eyes to see Hanabi holding a lantern to her face, she was standing with a man cloaked in shadow, he leaned forward and Ino gave a weak cry of joy.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed weakly. "You've come…" and with that she passed out in the man's arms.

Naruto hoisted her onto his shoulder and turned to Hanabi. "Let's get out of here before we're found."

And with that they left. With the woman dreaming on the shoulder of the one who loved her, dreaming of the last words her captor had said to her.

"_Bring Naruto to me, and I will give you your father and Choji! Hahahaha!"_

* * *

Well there's chapter eleven, sorry it was so short. I hope that I'll still have readers after this, that one bit was kinda out there but that's what this story is about, well, I got my fingers crossed. See you next time, bye!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sorry it's so late, but inspiration was slow to come this chapter.

Okay, to those that are still reading, thank you for not giving up on this story because of the horrors in the last chapter, but they were part of the plot when I wrote it out before even beginning to write the chapters, so it's not like they were random. And yes I should've warned you all about it, but, you know, what kind of fun is a story when you know what it's darkest hour will be, half of you wouldn't even be here, I bet as soon as you'd have seen the word 'rape', you would've decided to find a different NaruIno story and would have been content, so I don't apologize for not warning you. But again, I thank you for continuing my story. I am sorry that most people didn't like it, but it plays a crucial part, her capture, so I can't really regret putting it up, but…man, conflicting emotions suck!

Now, something to say to those that quit. It's Angst people! It's going to have the stuff you don't like in it, that's WHY I put ANGST as the genre of the story, its ANGST, and I'll say again, ANGST. You know, the bad stuff, the things you don't want to hear about in human society, like rape and murder and that kind of thing. Angst involves the scum of the Earth as the author sees fit, and it just so happens that Ino's rape plays a major part in the relationship between her and Naruto. If you didn't like Angst, why did you check out my story, because it's also under Romance, perhaps? Yes it's under Romance, but all of my stories are, so what, it's usually the second genre that makes the most of my stories, so if you wanted prancing ponies and unicorns and other crap that'll never be in my stories, find one that has those. You definitely aren't going to find one in the ANGST department friends.

Now, this chapter takes place while Ino's captured, it is the story of The Revolution and their struggle to retrieve her. But it mostly entails Naruto's feelings for Ino now that he's admitted to them; that coupled with getting reacquainted with his friend the Kyuubi. All I can say is to the readers that are still here, enjoy, this chapter, chapter thirteen and fourteen make up for chapter eleven, well at least I hope they will.

That is all.

* * *

The Fifth Day of Ino's imprisonment

Naruto stood with Gaara at the head of a large assembly of Ninja on the desert plain. The army of five hundred was well versed in the way of the ninja and had brought their own supplies; they waited as the large rabble ate.

"We should make it to Iwa in two days." Naruto said, studying the map in Gaara's hands. "Then I will take three people and bust my way into Orochimaru's base, there's only one still in usable order in the neighboring Nations."

Gaara looked at the determination on his friends face. "Only three? Do you think that many will be able to handle it? Who are you taking?"

Naruto smiled. "It will be enough Gaara, and as for the three I'm taking, that's easy. Kurenai will be coming to create a genjutsu inside the base to throw Orochimaru and his group off, Kiba and Akamaru are my digging experts, and Tenten will cover our retreat with her long range weapons. I was just going to take Kiba, or maybe Shikamaru, but he didn't want to, and Kurenai and Tenten told me they were going whether I liked it or not, so we made a plan."

Gaara smiled. "So you already had a plan, how unlike you Naruto."

Naruto laughed with his friend. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He said, and then his face grew serious. "Gaara…If somehow, I don't make it…you will lead The Revolution in my stead. I have already given them orders to follow you in my absence."

Gaara looked at his friend with an icy stare. "You will return, my friend, even if I have to come after you."

Naruto gave him half a smile. "If I fall, don't try anything, you must get Takuma out of the Hokage's seat. Ino is going to be pissed that I'm risking my neck to save her any way, so there's no need to send another rescue if the first one fails. Orochimaru and Takuma are itching for the chance to kill me, so I'm a major target. If I'm captured, there will be no force strong enough to get me out. Our mission is too important to jeopardize because of me."

Naruto turned as Jiraiya approached. "Ah! Jiraiya! You've been quiet for the longest time; I haven't seen hide nor hair of you since I broke the final seal! How are you?"

Jiraiya gave a forced smile. "I'm fine, but I need to talk to you about what I witnessed at Suna."

Naruto's face grew sad. "I see. Well then, let's get on with it, I'll see you when we start them out Gaara." He said as he walked with his sensei to somewhere deserted.

Jiraiya stopped and turned to his pupil. "You've made the ultimate style of rasengan now, I've seen it with my own eyes, your clones used it outside of Suna, you were practicing it, I want to know what it does."

Naruto smiled at the straightforwardness of his master. "I will not divulge the secrets of that style of rasengan to anyone, when I use it, it will go to the grave with me."

Jiraiya smiled. "Ah, but I already know how to use it. It's a very clever design, how long did it take you to develop it?"

Naruto's face creased into a frown. "You don't need the knowledge of that technique, I know how you can be, the first situation that arises, if the danger to The Revolution is large enough you'll unleash it. And by the way, it took me eight days to create it, and then it took almost a year to master it."

"As I thought." Jiraiya said thoughtfully. "Well, I just wanted to let you know that I copied your technique. I'll see you when we make camp to night."

"Don't ever use it. Promise me that that jutsu will never be unleashed by your hands."

"I can't promise that, the Shinsei Na Rasengan might come in handy one of these days."

Naruto smiled. "The 'Sacred' Rasengan…I like it."

Jiraiya looked at the boy sadly. "I'm sorry Naruto; for sealing you, that scene could have been searched better, but I trusted our Anbu…can you forgive me?"

Naruto smiled, his glacier blue eyes flashing. "I forgave you a long time ago, old man, quit beating yourself up about what's in the past and look toward the future."

"I will, Naruto, I will…thank you." Jiraiya mumbled as the blond walked away.

* * *

The army marched on at a great speed, heading in a northwesterly direction to avoid the Fire Nation. They marched at a double pace, hoping to cross into Stone the next day.

As they marched, Naruto allowed his mind to wander, and it wandered to where it had been stuck since he woke up, Ino. Where was she now, was she okay; questions like those and many more shot threw his head, along with regret that he couldn't accept his feelings for her until it was too late. Constantly one scene flashed through his mind, a scene not long before she left.

* * *

_The Day Before Ino's Departure_

_Ino and Naruto sat at their respective desks, watching the influx of C rank and D rank missions, when Ino suddenly perked up._

"_Hey Naruto, we got an A rank here!" she squealed, and then rushed to print off a copy of the mission to give to Naruto. He took it._

"_Now…" he began smoothly. "Who will we send on this little joy ride?"_

"_Oh Me, me, me!" Ino pleaded._

_Naruto smiled. "Okay, but take Kiba and Neji with you, those two can fight through anything, good luck, you leave out tomorrow."_

"_Will you see me off?" Ino asked._

"_Of course I will." Naruto replied. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."_

* * *

Naruto was constantly plagued by his thoughts, HE had sent her to be tortured at the hands of Orochimaru, and now with the last seal gone, he couldn't even check on her. Everything was his fault. He knew it, and hated himself for it.

The group stopped to camp about an hour before dark. They were now out of the desert, to their left lay the desert they had crossed. To their right lay the forests that covered the area, in that direction laid their worst enemy. Behind them were more of the same trees. And in front, a vast mountain range that was known as Stone. Iwa lay somewhere in there. Naruto quickly assembled The Revolution in his tent and outlined his strategies to them, as he expected, several others were not pleased that they couldn't go, Ino had become much loved by the group. Naruto shook off all of their arguments and dismissed them, all except for Rengoku, whom he told to stay inside.

"All right." He began, looking at the giant standing in front of him. "I have a mission for you, Rengoku, I need you to hurry with all speed to Sasuke, get to him, and tell him to evacuate the Sound base, and I mean evacuate, as in, EVERYONE out, including him. Give him that message, and then travel with him to Iwa, now, dismissed!"

Rengoku bowed and left the tent, Naruto then walked to his pallet to catch a few hours sleep.

* * *

Eight hours later found him still awake, and still with thoughts of a certain blonde woman crowding his head. Was she all right? What were they doing to her? Was she even still alive? Those questions and more bounced around in his head. Then, he heard it; music, and it was coming from outside his tent, he lay there and listened, for the words trapped him in place.

_If you only knew  
I'm hanging by a thread  
The web I spin for you  
If you only knew  
I'd sacrifice my beating  
Heart before I lose you  
I still hold onto the letters  
You returned  
I swear I've lived and learned_

_It's 4:03 and I can't sleep  
Without you next to me I  
Toss and turn like the sea  
If I drown tonight, bring me  
Back to life  
Breathe your breath in me  
The only thing that I still believe  
In is you, if you only knew_

_If you only knew  
How many times I counted  
All the words that went wrong  
If you only knew  
How I refuse to let you go,  
Even when you're gone  
I don't regret any days I  
Spent, nights we shared,  
Or letters that I sent_

_It's 4:03 and I can't sleep  
Without you next to me I  
Toss and turn like the sea  
If I drown tonight, bring me  
Back to life  
Breathe your breath in me  
The only thing that I still believe  
In is you, if you only knew_

If you only knew  
I still hold onto the letters  
You returned  
You help me live and learn

_It's 4:03 and I can't sleep  
Without you next to me I  
Toss and turn like the sea  
If I drown tonight, bring me  
Back to life  
Breathe your breath in me  
The only thing that I still believe  
In is you, believe in is you  
I still believe in you  
Oh, if you only knew_

Naruto had been staring at his watch the whole entire time, entranced by the music. The lyrics had started at 4:03 A.M. A single tear rolled down his check as he thought of the one that he loved.

* * *

The morning saw Naruto staring east, in the direction of the only inhabitable base left of Orochimaru's creation. He hadn't gotten any sleep, as he had planned, but had tossed and turned. And to top it all off; that eerie music had pretty much summed up his feelings, his day was going to be hell.

Gaara had also heard the music, as his tent was right next to Naruto's, and upon seeing the look on his friend's face he immediately prepared to help, but Naruto waved him away.

"I'm fine, just worried, that's all." He said, continuing to peer east, as if he was hoping for a glance of Ino.

"We're all worried Naruto, but don't run yourself ragged over this, it's not your fault." Gaara said, putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Yeah, it is my fault." Naruto choked, tears finally streaming down his face. "I'm the one who gave the order. I'm the one who let her go. How could I have been so stupid?" he slammed his fist into the ground, the sand wrapping around his fist like a snake constricting its prey. Naruto stayed there, kneeling into the sunrise, for a few minutes. He then pulled his hand out and turned cold blue eyes at Gaara.

"I won't let her die; I'm going as soon as we reach Iwa tomorrow."

Gaara smiled. "Why don't you leave now? I can take charge of The Revolution until you return."

"I don't know, a part of me wants to, but another part is telling me to stay right here."

Gaara looked at his friend with a sideways glance. Naruto had seemed to age in the few days that Ino had been gone. The man hadn't cut or dyed his hair in a long time. It now fell around his shoulders in a massive tangle, as a comb had never been swept through it. His eyes had sunken into his face from lack of sleep, and he was constantly grabbing his head, as if he was experiencing a major headache constantly.

Gaara was worried for his friend. But there was not much the former Kazekage could do except watch from the sideline as his friend slowly deteriorated. Gaara clenched his fist tightly.

Naruto had been staring east. And during his view of the sun rising, he missed the shimmer of a blade glinting in the sun, not until it was almost too late.

"Gaara! Get out of the way!" Naruto said as he pushed Gaara aside, and out of an incoming kunai's path. Naruto grunted as the projectile embedded itself in his shoulder.

Gaara was dumbstruck; he barely had time to think before Naruto flung him back into the camp and shouted. "To me! Revolution, to me!"

The Revolution Ninja shot out of the camp as if they were fired out of cannons. Just as they landed the air was infested with the buzzing of weapons, and the small group ducked, dodged and blocked madly, circling around their wounded leader.

"Very good." Said an icy voice from the foliage directly in front of them. A man walked out. It started with just one man; he was wearing what looked like a weird dive suit, especially with the equipment hanging out of his mouth. His eyes were wrapped up, and he walked forward, alone.

More people started to emerge from the bushes, until almost a hundred were present. They all looked exactly alike.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as a familiar maniacal laughter rang out from the forest.

"Oboro…" he said under his breath. To the Revolution, who were all present minus Sakura, who was now so far along that she couldn't fight, she had to be transported from camp to camp on the back of her summon, he said, "Prepare yourself." He turned to Kurenai. "I've fought this guy before, he's using a genjutsu; can you break it?"

Kurenai closed her eyes and focused for a few seconds; then she grabbed a kunai and stood at the ready. "It's not a genjutsu, these things are real." She said as she observed the massive army in front of her.

"Hahahahahahaha! Do you really think I'd have kept up with that silly genjutsu all these years? No, I've perfected a clone jutsu that creates vast numbers of clones for almost no chakra at all." Oboro said mirthfully, still more of his copies walked out of the forest.

Naruto smiled. "So who put you up to this, if I may ask?"

"My village is now allied with Konoha; I am here under the orders of my Kage." Oboro replied, still a disembodied voice among the hundreds of clones at his disposal.

Naruto smiled. "So killing me is your mission, right?"

"Yes, and it will be easy." Oboro said maliciously.

Naruto's smile grew wider. He turned to his comrades.

"It's been too long since He's had a bit of fun, stand back." He told them, and then he closed his eyes.

* * *

Naruto found himself in the deepest part of his mind once more, staring down the beast on the other side of the cage.

**It's been too long, kid, I'm glad to see a face here in this hell.** Kyuubi said with a large evil grin cracking his features; Naruto gave a knowing smile.

(Are we ready to unleash hell again, my friend?)

**Hahahahaha!!!** Kyuubi roared. **When am I not ready to? Let's get started while the day is young!**

Naruto smiled again, but turned serious almost immediately.

(No more than four tails, okay. I want to have some of my body left intact afterwards)

**Awwww, spoilsport…Fine; let's get going.**

* * *

Naruto dropped on all fours, a red chakra beginning to cover his body. The chakra took the outline of a fox with one tail. The tail seemed to shudder, and then split into two. The tail split again, making three. A fourth tail was created not long after, and then the transformation began.

Naruto's skin started peeling away, blood rising and forming little droplets floating in the liquid like chakra. The droplets then spread around the surface of the chakra, completely shielding Naruto's body from view. Two luminous orbs appeared where his eyes would be, and then a large, jagged mouth, the same blinding white appeared between the large spikes that were clearly teeth.

Oboro and his clones stopped laughing and looked at the monster crouched in front of them.

"Im-impossible!" Oboro's disembodied voice stuttered out. "H-he's not supposed to be able to unleash the Kyuubi!"

The beast where Naruto stood tensed; then with blinding speed he assaulted his enemies. By the time Naruto's transformation had been completed, a massive three thousand clones stood opposite of him, his first assault threw him directly into the center of the enemy force. They didn't stand a chance.

A large group of clones, somewhere near a hundred of them, dived on top of the creature that was Naruto; they were all destroyed as they came into contact with the poisonous chakra emitted by the beast. The monster swept his arm and eliminated another several in a hissing pop that covered the ground in smoke.

The Kyuubi stood on its hind legs, unleashing a terrifying scream into the air. The large army that had been following stood behind him staring in awe at the vicious spectacle in front of them.

Kyuubi wasted no time in destroying the army of clones in front of him; he swept his arms from side to side, extending them to let the poisonous chakra kill more of the clones with each swipe. It wasn't long before the army was reduced to the single, original ninja, who lay cowering in front of the remains of the stump of a tree caught in the midst of the slaughter, the topmost of the stump still smoldering from where the deadly chakra made contact.

The Kyuubi stood a mere twenty feet from Oboro, it stood on it's hind legs and took a step forward, and another, and on the third step, the chakra surrounding Naruto's body dissipated, leaving Naruto standing in front of Oboro, most of the skin ripped from his body, leaving the bare muscle in view in places.

"No! No! Please, please don't kill me! Please!" Oboro pleaded as Naruto advanced on him, a kunai gripped tightly in his hand.

"The days of my mercy have long passed Oboro!" Naruto shouted, "You and I have had far too many encounters for me to let you live on the hopes that I never see you again. Your employers have someone precious to me, and for that they must pay, even if you're just their minion, your death will still harm them."

He leaned down, letting the kunai rest against Oboro's jugular.

"Oh god, please…" Oboro whined.

Naruto applied pressure, and then thrust his arm to the side.

And thus Oboro met his end.

* * *

Naruto sat in his tent, wiping the blade of his kunai, even though it had been clean of blood long ago, he sat, thinking. He wasn't here at the border between Wind and Stone, he was in the past, remembering one of his and Ino's nights out in Suna

_Naruto smiled at the antics of the blond woman playing in the fountain of water at the center of the city. Suna had been built around a gigantic spring, and in the golden years before the last shinobi war, they had built a fountain over it. It was a place of peace, where monks from all over came just to sit by the crystal clear waters and meditate, hoping that being close to the natural beauty of the fountain would somehow help them achieve absolute peace. None of the pieces of the fountain was carved, all of them were naturally formed over millennia; they were placed strategically to ensure that the water rushing up would make it to the top and shoot out, and then cascade down the sides. It was a truly beautiful sight._

_The fountain had a pool around it, about a foot and a half deep. Kids would play in it to keep cool during the hottest part of the day, and he and Ino had been walking by when a group of kids accidentally splashed the couple. Ino had pretended to be angry, and then exuberantly joined them at play. Naruto had sat down at a bench beside the fountain, where the mothers of Suna sat to keep an eye on their children._

_He sat and watched her as she kneeled down and scooped up a handful of water and began manipulating it with her chakra. The children were mesmerized, they watched as she used her chakra to make the water flow up her hand and twist and contort like a snake, always smiling as the children shouted "More! More!" she complied until they were ready to leave the pool, then she stood, the water close to her knees, smiling as she watched them move to a different game. She got out and put her boots back on, acting as if she was oblivious to the man that was staring at her, a smile also adorning his face._

"_I'm hungry! Let's go get something to eat!" she said happily, jumping around and enjoying herself. He smiled; sometimes it was good to take a break from the world around, from all of the evils man has brought forth. His smile faded, if only he could do the same._

_She led him to a small restaurant close to the northern gates, there were a lot of small shops down here that she loved to peruse, so she knew the area very well, and the restaurant was her favorite in Suna._

_They ordered and sat down, waiting for the food, the drinks were brought out immediately and Ino sipped hers while staring out the window. Naruto sat across from her, smiling as his eyes traced her features._

"_How can you kill?"_

_Naruto's smile disappeared. "Huh?"_

"_How can you kill; I mean, it was hard to do at first, wasn't it?"_

_He sighed. "It was something I had to get used to."_

"_Well, how did you? And how many?"_

_Naruto took a drink, it was going to take a while. "I made my first kill a sixteen, when those rogues brought back those four lightening guys and the city was almost toasted."_

"_Yeah, that's when I first found out you were a jinchurikki." She cut in._

_Naruto gave her a cold look. "I killed a woman, and I didn't really like it. But it was necessary to the survival of Konoha, so I performed my duty as a shinobi. The next time I had to kill, it was a lot harder, instead of a full grown woman, I had to kill a little boy, who couldn't control himself, he would go psycho, and due to some mutation in his genes, he would gain massive strength and stamina, heh, at the time, he had probably killed more people than I had ever thought of doing. He pleaded for me to, and I did…I have never told anyone about that, and I probably never will again. After that, I didn't kill until I became a jounin. And again, it was a woman, who had the ability to possess someone and then use them like a bomb, pushing all of their chakra out of their body and devastating the area around. She had been working for Sasuke, and I had to kill her so Sakura and I could escape the Sound base alive…that was the day we lost Kakashi-sensei. Next came Sasuke, or so I thought, and Kiba. After I was sealed, it didn't hurt so much to do it, if it was necessary at first, then, when people stepped in between me and the mission, I killed them, and then it slowly became fun, I don't know how, and I don't want to, but I came to enjoy physical pain and killing, it was like an escape from reality, every bit of pain bringing me closer to some sick form of a mental orgasm, you could say, I went out on every mission hoping that I would either kill or die. That's why I was so good as an Anbu, and then as an S class ninja, way beyond Anbu, the mission would be completed, hopefully at the cost of my own life, and then I was running down a street one night, preoccupied with my own thoughts, when I ran over what happened to be the best thing that has ever happened to me, are you satisfied?"_

"_You didn't answer how many."_

_He smiled, "If I do, you do."_

_She stared him down as she sipped her drink from a straw. "Fine."_

"_Before the sealing, three, but supposedly five, afterwards, on the upscale close to eight hundred." Leaving her dumbfounded._

"_How?" she asked._

"_I have successfully invaded and destroyed twenty-six military bases, half of those were full to maximum capacity and were planning to invade this very village, Gaara didn't have anyone to do the job, so he asked me, it was a twelve day venture, I was paid over three million to do it, and that is where most of those numbers come from." He sighed, and then turned his slate grey eyes on the woman across from him. "Now it's your turn."_

_She thought for a second. "About eighty, my missions usually don't involve assassination, just infiltration. Happy?"_

"_Content."_

_The food came shortly after and they ate in silence. Naruto paid and they left, Ino resumed her happy reverie as soon as the stepped onto the street. She led him through several stores before they stopped at a small shop on the edge of town, it was by the wall, but nowhere near the North gate; she smiled as she dragged him in. _

_The store was small, and from the look of the merchandise, it was an ignored treasure. There were hundreds of things packed onto the shelves, all covered in a thin coat of dust, but that didn't mean they weren't valuable._

_In this store was a antique collector's heaven. Everything had to be bordering a hundred years old. And a jeweler would be envious of the finery that adorned one entire wall of the store._

_Naruto perused through the antiques with a fine eye and an open mind. They had spent almost thirty minutes when he heard Ino gasp._

"_Naruto, come here!" she said, it sounded like she was hyperventilating._

_He rushed over to where she was, and came upon her holding one of the most beautiful necklaces he had ever seen. The necklace itself was a braided silver cord, with small pieces of onyx and rubies weaved in. his eyes traveled to the pendant on it…and they never left._

_The pendant was barely an inch wide, and was only slightly lengthier, nor was it very thick, about a centimeter, but it was made almost entirely out of a ruby, it had a gold back piece, and gold was weaved through the ruby to give detail, an etching of the animal the pendant portrayed was on the side connected to the rubies. The only other part of the pendant was the eyes of the animal, two red diamonds, slightly a lighter shade of red that the rubies. But none of that was what held Naruto's attention. Even though it was quite beautiful, he was enthralled by what animal the necklace portrayed._

_It was an almost exact likeness of the Kyuubi._

_Ino was also enthralled. "It's perfect! I'll take it!"_

"_No." Naruto said, "You won't buy that." He watched her face as it turned red, and he smiled._

"_Why not?"_

"_Because I'm buying it for you, the damn thing looks like it costs a fortune."_

_And it did. Gamma never felt lighter._

_The woman who owned the store told Ino all about the necklace, and the being it represented._

"_The Kyuubi was once a divine spirit, sent to earth to protect it's beauty, but when he arrived, the taint mankind had spread over the world took hold of him, and all he desired to do was kill." She said. "For millennia that is all he did, he took it upon himself to destroy all of man to try and rid the planet of the evils they brought. That is how he justified it at first, and then he just grew to enjoy killing, he loved it, and as he killed, he grew, he went from a pure white fox with nine tails, to a bloodstained red fox, bathing in the blood of the slain, and he continued to enjoy it until almost twenty two years ago, when the Fourth Hokage Sealed him in that boy you're with." The lady smiled at Naruto. "I've never seen you to thank you for keeping that beast at bay, without you, he'd probably be out there killing today."_

_They left and went back to the recently rebuilt headquarters; it was still a mess, even after a couple days of cleaning and repair. They sat in their room, watching their screens as D and C rank missions kept pouring in._

"_Naruto…" Ino started._

"_Hm?"_

"_Don't be like the Kyuubi, please, promise me you won't enjoy killing anymore."_

"_Ino, I…I'll try." _

_She nodded and they sat for a few minutes, watching their respective computers._

_Ino suddenly perked up. "Hey Naruto, we got an A rank here!"…_

* * *

Naruto mulled over that day constantly. He remembered the necklace, shimmering on her neck as she told him she loved him seven days ago. Now he sat alone, conversing with the beast whose likeness was draped around her neck.

(Is it true?)

**Is what true?**

(Is that story true; is that how you came to be?)

**Yes, that is how I became who I am. Does that frighten you?**

(No, but it makes me wonder, if you started pure, isn't a part of you still such?)

**How do you think you come to talk to me in such a friendly manner? That somehow, even though I am evil, my taint cannot fully affect you. I still had a say in your actions, even when they placed that seal upon you, you came to enjoy what I enjoy.**

(But it seems it works both ways.)

**The designer of the seal placed upon us made it so, so we would slowly assimilate each other until we became one entity, at such time the Kyuubi would no longer exist, we'd be one and the same. The evil that drove me would incorporate itself into your mannerisms, which it already has, and your long marred purity would slowly destroy the wickedness of my soul. Your father was a credit to your race, he was still evil, as mankind will always be, but he was a lesser evil.**

(I will not become like you.)

**You already have. The purity that made you an unstoppable force is gone, you shown yourself that earlier. There is no more mercy and compassion in your soul. I find it amusing that you still have the ability to love.**

(I can change. I will change; I will not let you influence my actions any more!)

**Bold of you to say so, let's see if the doing is as easy as the saying.**

"Naruto."

Naruto looked up. Gaara was standing at the entrance of his tent.

"Yes Gaara, what is it?"

Gaara gave a half smile. "We are waiting for you to give the signal to pack up. Everybody's ready."

Naruto nodded. "Give the order. We march double time today, I want to be in Iwa by nightfall."

Gaara nodded and turned, exiting without another word. Naruto sat there for a moment longer before he began getting ready to leave, only one thing floating through his head the entire time.

(I will change…for Ino if not for myself.)

* * *

So, not quite what you expected from me huh, the Oboro scene is mainly to show that Naruto, even if he has finally been unsealed, is still the 'I have to kill you before you get the chance to do the same to me' type. Not that it's a bad thing really…maybe this is why I'm diagnosed as mentally insane…Goddess I hate being three months behind! This chapter was supposed to be out in April, but here it is the eleventh of freaking August and I'm just now getting this out to you, please accept a million of my apologies. Well, as always, read and review, I hope you had fun reading it.

Seeya!


End file.
